It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I learned that the early Essex-class carriers had been built with a hangar-level catapult. It was called the HIVA catapult and shot planes out of the starboard forward hangar deck. It was removed during refits in 1944 because it didn’t get a lot of use. The only carrier to keep the hangar catapult through the end of the war was USS Hornet (CV 12).

Here’s a shot of the second USS Yorktown (CV 10) showing a folded ramp so you can see its location on the ship:

More photos below.

