Flying aircraft carriers

Long before SHIELD’s helicarrier as seen in the avengers movie the US Navy actually had a couple of real life flying aircraft carriers, the zeppelins USS Macon and Akron, capable of carrying about 5 Sparrowhawk airplanes each, launching and retreiving them via sky hooks. Unfortunately the science of weather prediction wasn’t up to keeping the ships properly safe and both were eventually lost in weather related accidents.