Training Aircraft Carriers: USS Sable

[Brian James]

USS Sable pictured in Lake Erie ice, 1943. She was a training ship during World War II.Originally owned by the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company,built by the American Ship Building Company in Lorain, Ohio in 1924 as the passenger ship 'Greater Buffalo', a Sidewheel excursion steamer, she was purchased by the Navy in 1942 and converted to a Training Aircraft Carrier to be used on the Great Lakes. Lacking a hangar deck, elevators or armament, she was not a true warship, but provided advanced training of naval aviators in carrier takeoffs and landings.
On her first day of service fifty-nine pilots became qualified within nine hours of operations, with each making eight takeoffs and landings. Pilot training was conducted seven days a week in all types of weather conditions.One aviator who trained upon the Sable was future president George H. W. Bush.Following World War II, Sable was decommissioned on November 7th 1945. She was sold for scrapping on July 7th 1948 to the H.H. Buncher Company. Sable and her sister ship, USS Wolverine, hold the distinction of being the only freshwater, coal-fired, side paddle-wheel Aircraft Carriers used by the USN.

[designeraccd]

My deceased father-in-law trained on these in late WW2 to become a carrier pilot. They were a excellent stop gap to fill a need for carrier pilots. The Great Lakes are full of interesting ships! DFO

[Brian James]

Training Carrier USS Sable pictured launching a Naval Aircraft Factory TDN-1 Drone while steaming off Traverse City, Michigan, during flight tests on August 10th 1943.The TDN was intended for use as a television-guided Attack Drone.The Naval Aircraft Factory TDN was an early unmanned combat aerial vehicle - referred to at the time as an 'Assault Drone' - developed by the United States Navy's Naval Aircraft Factory during the Second World War. Developed and tested during 1942 and 1943, the design proved moderately successful, but development of improved drones saw the TDN-1 relegated to second-line duties, and none were used in operational service.

[Brian James]

Training Carrier USS Sable pictured during the Naval Aircraft Factory TDN-1 Drone carrier sea trials at West Grand Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan on August 10th 1943. The development of the radar altimeter and television in the early 1940s made remotely guided bomb or torpedo carrying aircraft a practical proposition. One hundred production TDN-1 aircraft were ordered in March 1942. Despite being specifically designed to be a simple, low-performance aircraft, and despite proving promising in testing, the type was considered to be too complicated and expensive for use operationally. The majority of TDN-1s were being used in the test, liaison and training roles, with some being expended as aerial targets. The TDN-1 is often credited as the first US drone to take off from an Aircraft Carrier freely (USS Sable). An Airspeed Queen Wasp had already been catapulted from HMS Pegasus in 1937.