In several earlier posts I've mentioned a peculiarity in the island design of the
Yorktown- class carriers,
Yorktown, Enterprise, and
Hornet. On the basis of the Navy "Booklet of General Plans" drawings for the
Yorktown, I noted that there was an odd - and pretty conspicuous - open space in the front of the stack. It's marked "void" on the plans, and takes the form of a vertical gap running from the cap to the base of the stack. None of the kit manufacturers has noticed it.
My good friend Mike Dillard and I have been studying all the photos we can find of the three ships' islands. Finding pictures that show "the gap" is tricky. The front of the stack is usually blocked out by the mast and other equipment on the island just ahead of it. We're both convinced that the gap was present on the
Yorktown and
Enterprise throughout their careers. (As a matter of fact it's still present on the
Yorktown. The gap is quite prominent in several photographs of the wreck.) We both are pretty firmly convinced, however, that the
Hornet's stack didn't have the gap. Apparently this was one more minor difference between the
Hornet and the other two ships. (The most conspicuous difference, as several other forum participants have noted, was the shape of the flight deck forward.)
I therefore apologize for my earlier gentle rebuke of the excellent Trumpeter
Hornet kit: the manufacturer got it right. The stack in the kit is correct for the
Hornet - though it would need to be altered for an
Enterprise or
Yorktown conversion.
Trumpeter - and, so far as I know, every other kit manufacturer - did make one small goof regarding the stack. It has three uptakes, each with a circular cap. The after one, for some reason, is supposed to be a little smaller in diameter than the others. That wouldn't be difficult to fix. I wonder if any of the aftermarket photo-etched sets caught it.