The aircraft cruiser or cruiser-carrier was originally a 1930s experimental concept of creating an all-around warship, trying to combine all the good features of the aircraft carrier

Aircraft carrier

An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...

 and the heavy cruiser

Heavy cruiser

The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range, high speed and an armament of naval guns roughly 203mm calibre . The heavy cruiser can be seen as a lineage of ship design from 1915 until 1945, although the term 'heavy cruiser' only came into formal use in 1930...

. The aircraft cruisers were usually armed with relatively heavy artillery, mines and a number of aircraft fitted with floats

Floatplane

A floatplane is a type of seaplane, with slender pontoons mounted under the fuselage; only the floats of a floatplane normally come into contact with water, with the fuselage remaining above water...

 (making the ship a kind of seaplane tender

Seaplane tender

A seaplane tender is a ship that provides facilities for operating seaplanes. These ships were the first aircraft carriers and appeared just before the First World War.-History:...

).

The early aircraft cruiser turned out to be quite an unsuccessful design. The rapid development of naval aircraft in the 30s quickly rendered the vessels obsolete and they were rebuilt into e.g. anti-aircraft cruisers.

A more modern derivative of the aircraft cruiser is the helicopter cruiser. The Invincible class aircraft carrier

Invincible class aircraft carrier

The Invincible class is a class of light aircraft carrier operated by the British Royal Navy. Three ships were constructed, , and . The vessels were built as aviation-capable anti-submarine warfare platforms to counter the Cold War North Atlantic Soviet submarine threat, and initially embarked...

 aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 can also be considered and originally classed as cruisers (as part of a deception by the admirals to keep fixed-wing aircraft in the fleet air arm).

Aircraft cruisers

Later types

• Kiev class
  Kiev class aircraft carrier
  The Kiev class carriers were the first class of fixed-wing aircraft carriers built in the Soviet Union....
  
  
• Admiral Kuznetsov

See also

• Seaplane tender
  Seaplane tender
  A seaplane tender is a ship that provides facilities for operating seaplanes. These ships were the first aircraft carriers and appeared just before the First World War.-History:...
  
  
• Helicopter carrier
  Helicopter carrier
  Helicopter carrier is a term for an aircraft carrier whose primary purpose is to operate helicopters. The term is sometimes used for both ASW carriers and amphibious assault ships....