Langley
Also called: 兰利 Beta- Stay a full map cell behind the brawl line, far enough back that a rotated DD or radar cruiser cannot threaten the hull
- Launch from positions where the recall path stays inside your team's AA umbrella
- Avoid: Trading a full squadron for one high-value kill
On this page
Langley Community Stats
Across 4,900+ Standard battles from 360+ players, Langley averages a 57% win rate, 34,900 damage and 0.9 kills per battle, and survives 53% of them.
Langley Community Stats
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Langley Community Stats
Record History
Playstyle
Overview
Langley is the Tier III American bomber carrier. Her damage comes from HE dive bombs hitting for up to 4,000 per drop, plus the fires they start, so match impact builds from repeated strikes rather than one decisive torpedo drop. HE ignores armor angle, so unlike an AP-bomb carrier she does not need a broadside to profit and can work an angled or bow-in target. Air torpedoes are a secondary option. AA (288 AA DPS at 3.5 km) is heavy enough to make her the team's air-defense anchor; CV strikes route around her, not through. Standout traits: best high HP pool in T3 CVs (33,700 HP, 1st of 6) and stealthy air torps in T3 CVs (1.1 km, 1st of 6). Each squadron flies 6 planes and they come back 48 s apiece, so losing a full wave costs 288 seconds of reserves.
Positioning
Stay a full map cell behind the brawl line, far enough back that a rotated DD or radar cruiser cannot threaten the hull. Launch from positions where the recall path stays inside your team's AA umbrella, not over open water where intercepting fighters can finish off limping squadrons. Longer trip back, fewer waves per match. You are spotted at 10.7 km and run at 18 kn, so that distance plus your speed is the whole margin for noticing a DD has slipped past and getting out. Once the rudder is over she turns tightly for her cohort (730 m), so a committed turn costs less water than most of what she is fighting.
Potato Avoidance
Trading a full squadron for one high-value kill
Match impact comes from cycling waves across multiple targets, not committing a dive into layered AA for one battleship. When a target's AA is heavy, route around and find a softer pick rather than burning planes through the wall. Reserves refill in 48 s per aircraft at best, the quickest in the cohort, so you can spend planes others cannot - but your thinnest-skinned squadron flies at 1,500 HP and decides how much of each wave comes home.
Signature Traits
33700 HP, best of T3 CVs.
- Top-tier AA · 288 AA
- AA specialist
- Tough flight deck · 16900 HP
- Stealthy air torps · 1.1 km
- Fast plane restore · 48 s
~22.7 s from a stop to 12 kt, worst of T3 CVs. Sluggish rebuild after a turn or a stop, so a full stop or a hard turn leaves it exposed for longer.
30857 secondary DPM (theoretical), bottom quartile of T3 CVs. Less per-minute secondary throughput than peers; brawl trade depends more on the mains.
How to get Langley
Langley is available in the Bomber Carriers branch of the U.S. Tech Tree for 270,000 credits after researching it in the branch.
While you save up, check active promo codes for free doubloons, camouflages, and other rewards.
Show U.S.A. tech-tree branch diagram
Langley sits in the Bomber Carriers branch. The highlighted path shows the local branch context inside the full U.S. tree.
U.S. aircraft carriers are all-rounders, effective with both dive bombers and torpedo bombers. However, they have a bias toward their powerful high-explosive bombs over torpedoes.
- Advantages
- Powerful HE dive bombers, Large hangars
- Disadvantages
- Poor torpedo performance
Builds
Pair with a commander whose unique skill complements her main armament; check the build tool for current recommendations.
Have a build you swear by? Open it in the Build Tool and hit Save build to share it here, or browse the Ship Builds guide for proven loadouts across the fleet.
Cohort position
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Where Langley sits among Tier III CVs (5 ships). Notable standouts are shown first; the rest of the cohort-ranked stats are in the expand below. Acquisition variants (Black Friday, Founders Edition) are counted once with their base ship, not as separate peers.
See 15 mid-pack stats
Not standouts for Langley -- here's where she sits on every other ranked stat in the cohort. Stats tagged NORM are tied across more than half the cohort, so the value is the cohort default rather than a standout.
Peers in this cohort
Compare Tier III Aircraft CarriersShow all 5 peers
Stats & specs
Customize in the Build Tool →ƒ
2 planes per drop x 3 bombs each = 6.ƒ
6 bombs x 4,000 alpha = 24,000, if every bomb hits. Before armor, saturation and the target's damage reduction; a real drop lands a share of it.ƒ
2 planes per drop x 1 torpedo each = 2.ƒ
2 torpedoes x 4,900 alpha = 9,800, if every torpedo hits. Before armor, saturation and the target's damage reduction; a real drop lands a share of it.ƒ
Initial: 0 km → 3.5 km (stock → upgraded). Longest-reaching family on the in-game AA card. Base AirDefense aura max range is 0 km; dual-purpose mount auras extend it.ƒ
Effective DPS: 9 raw aura damage × 3.5 × 1 hit probability = 32 - the same in-game units as the Close-range AA DPS headline.ƒ
Effective DPS: 77 raw aura damage × 3.5 × 0.95 hit probability = 256 - the same in-game units as the Close-range AA DPS headline.ƒ
Far 32 + Near 256 = 288ƒ
Each ~2 s salvo fires 2 AA explosions in quick succession, each leaving 1 cloud ahead of the attacking squadron - up to 2 clouds per salvo × 110 damage each. Planes that fly into a cloud take its damage; clouds dissipate before the next salvo lands. Defensive AA Fire, where fitted, multiplies the AA explosions within each salvo, and commander skills that raise the Number of AA explosions add to it.ƒ
Damage a plane takes for flying into one flak cloud, before any reductions.ƒ
Every potential cloud spawns - the full pattern, every salvo. Often called flak 'hit chance', but spawned clouds always damage planes that fly into them - the roll is on spawning.ƒ
A new flak salvo (the AA explosions above) fires roughly every 2 s.ƒ
Flak keeps firing while at least one AA mount is operational - it stops only once every AA mount is knocked out.ƒ
The activation band: flak fires while attacking planes are inside it. Clouds are placed ahead of the planes' path, so clouds can land short of 2.5 km or past 3.5 km - once planes get inside the band, new salvos stop. AA range bonuses push the outer edge out; the 2.5 km inner edge does not move.ƒ
Sum across all secondary families of (per-side barrels × 60 / reload_s × alpha), with each reload counted in whole 1/7 s ticks (guns fire on the first tick after the reload), where per-side barrels = mounts × barrels-per-mount / 2 (the guns that bear on one broadside target). Per-family: 4×1 127 mm (2/side) × 60/7 s × 1800 = 30,857. Assumes every shell hits (real hit rate is lower; the Brawl matchup tool on the Compare page folds in dispersion + target armor).ƒ
Fires/min (per side) 1 × (1 − 0.1 fire resistance) × 60 s × 0.003 of max HP per second × 40,500 HP = 6,748. Per side: the barrels that bear on one broadside target (mounts × barrels / 2). A ceiling: assumes every shell hits and ignores the four-fire cap and Fire Prevention.ƒ
Secondary DPM (per side) 30,857 + secondary fire DPM 6,748 = 37,606: shell damage plus fire damage against one T3 battleship, every shell hitting.ƒ
4×1 barrels / 2 sides × 60 / 7 s × 0.06 (6% fire chance) = 1. Per side: the barrels that bear on one broadside target (mounts × barrels / 2). A ceiling: assumes every shell hits and ignores the four-fire cap and Fire Prevention.ƒ
Max dispersion = range (km) × 57 + 30. Each dispersion type sets its own slope; this is not a percentage applied to a standard baseline.ƒ
3.5 km × 57 + 30 = 229.5 m.ƒ
top speed / 4 + 4.9 = 18 / 4 + 4.9 = 9.4 kt. Base value; speed modifiers scale it.ƒ
Seconds from top speed to a dead stop after ordering full reverse: reverse power winds in over the reverse spool-up while water drag does most of the braking, using the ship's own reverse-power ratio. The full curve is on the acceleration chart. Full reverse stops about a quarter faster than a plain Stop order from top speed.ƒ
Speed below which the engine's built-in power boost applies in reverse.ƒ
Time to reach 90% of top speed (16.2 kt of 18.0 kt).ƒ
Time to reach 99% of top speed (17.8 kt of 18.0 kt). 99% rather than 100% because true top speed is asymptotic (thrust meets drag), so the last fraction of a knot is never quite gained.ƒ
Base value, no camouflage. With a Grade IV permanent camo (or any disposable camo): 10.74 km x 0.955 = 10.26 km. Camouflage does not change detectability by air.ƒ
Detectability by sea 10.74 km x 0.955 (Grade IV permanent camo or any disposable camo) = 10.26 km.ƒ
Air detectability 7.52 km + gun-firing bloom 0 km = 7.52 km. The bloom tracks main-battery caliber x 0.020.ƒ
Sea detectability 10.74 km + 2.0 km while burning = 12.74 km.ƒ
Air detectability 7.52 km + 3.0 km while burning = 10.52 km.
Automatic Damage Control Party∞ charges · 90 s reload · 60 s active
Automatic Fighter4 charges · 40 s reload · 150 s active · 5 km patrol radius ƒ
Derived from the consumable's 30 m grid-unit range (km = grid units x 30 / 1000):
Under the hood
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All values are ship base stats with modifications and upgrade changes denoted inline.
The constants behind the formulas and the long tail: shell and dispersion inputs, fixed-range anchors, salvo math, layered AA. Click the formula chip on any row to see how it is calculated.
AA defense
Only families that reach 3.5 km contribute at the outer edge of the AA bubble. In-game families: 3in50 Mk22 Mod2 4x1 -> 32 DPS @ 3.5 km; Browning M2 Mod1 16x1 -> 256 DPS @ 1.2 km.@ 3.5 km: 32 from one family; @ 1.2 km: 32 + 256 = 288. Cumulative AA DPS at each family range threshold. Inner ranges stack the outer families, so a target closing the distance hits stronger AA bubbles as it crosses each band.32 + 256 = 288 DPS: the sum of every family's average DPS, achievable only inside the closest-range family (1.2 km).32 × 3.5 + 256 × 1.2 = 419. SUM over AA auras of (aura DPS x aura range km). A plane crossing the AA bubble is exposed to each aura for a time proportional to that aura's range, so long-reach DPS is worth more than the same DPS in a short bubble. Units: DPS*km; used to rank overall AA threat across the cohort.Secondary battery firepower
The only family (127 mm): 1800. Maximum HE damage per shell across secondary HE families. Best on this ship: 1800 from the 127 mm family.The only family (127 mm): 6%. Maximum per-shell fire chance across secondary HE families (before target fire resistance is applied). Best on this ship: 6% from the 127 mm family.The only family (127 mm): 21 mm. Maximum HE armor penetration across secondary HE families (caliber × 1/6 for most nations; 1/4 for German/UK BBs). Shells whose pen falls under a plate's armor thickness shatter for 0 hull damage though fire chance still applies. Best on this ship: 21 mm from the 127 mm family.Ship Charts
Background
The first U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, Langley was converted from a collier. She had low speed and was used as an experimental ship for testing various technical innovations as well as for training navy pilots. The carrier was equipped with secondary armament to repel attacks from enemy destroyers.
Armor Beta
Hull HP 33,300 → 33,700 with hull upgrade, distributed across 5 hull zones, each with its own plate thicknesses, saturation cap, and pen thresholds. HP caps are estimates.
Overmatched by 51+ AP guns across the bracket. Can’t reliably bow-tank; gets bow-citadelled and overpenned.
Superstructure and extremities take HE pens and AP overpens from nearly any gun: steady chip damage. Fire resistance 10%, fires burn 60s. Range-by-range in the Compare tool →
| Section | Plates | HP cap | Threats | Tactic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bow | 13 mm primary (range 10–19 mm) | ≈ 1,685 (~5% of HP) | Overmatched by 203mm+ AP (Desert Falcon, Genova)Angle bounces 152mm13 mm: HE pens from 127mm+ | Bow-tank fits behind this exterior plate. Saturation is FAST here; the cap is often only a few thousand HP. |
| Hull (midship) | 20 mm primary (range 6–20 mm) | ≈ 25,275 (~75% of HP) | Overmatched by 305mm+ AP (Mikasa, Courbet)Angle bounces 283mm20 mm: HE pens from 127mm+ | Largest HP pool. Citadel sits behind these plates; thinner deck and side plating absorb the rest. |
| Stern | 13 mm primary (range 6–13 mm) | ≈ 1,685 (~5% of HP) | Overmatched by 203mm+ AP (Desert Falcon, Genova)Angle bounces 152mm13 mm: HE pens from 127mm+ | Mirror of bow. Same fast saturation. |
| Citadel | 20 mm primary (range 6–20 mm) | no cap | Citadel pen: full damageOver-pen: ×0.10 damage | Effectively no cap; citadel pool sits at ~165k HP on every ship. An AP citadel penetration deals the shell's full damage, the biggest single hit available; only over-penetrations are damped, to ×0.10. |
| Superstructure | 6 mm primary (range 6–13 mm) | no cap | Any HE ≥16 mm pens at full damage | Any HE ≥16 mm pens at full damage. HE-spam target, and the section saturates fast (often only a few thousand HP). |
Saturation cap = HP a section can absorb before further damage to it is reduced (the "bow-tank" effect). Citadel pool is ~165k on every ship (effectively no cap); damage is gated by pen/over-pen multipliers instead. Superstructure saturates fast but HE always pens regardless of the plate thickness. Rudder (and other module HPs) are a separate pool from ship HP: damaging a module doesn't drain ship HP. Incapacitated modules like the rudder and engine are restored by DCP, but secondary and AA mounts destroyed at 0 HP stay out for the rest of the battle.
Balance History
Balance updates affecting Langley. Cards are condensed; use each source link for full context.
Ministry of Balance: Aerial Adjustments
- Torpedo bombers:
- Torpedo bomber restoration time increased from 40 to 52 s.
- Dive bombers:
- Dive bomber restoration time increased from 36 to 48 s.
- Dive bomber base speed reduced from 109 to 103 kts.
Ministry of Balance: Carriers 2.0 – First Wave
- Dive Bombers:
- Bombs per aircraft increased from 1 to 3.
- Bomb damage reduced from 9,950 to 4,000.
- Bomb fire-setting chances reduced from 43 to 24%.
- Bomb splash radius reduced.
- Maximum hangar aircraft increased from 10 to 12.
- Starting hangar aircraft reduced from 10 to 9.
- Aircraft restoration time reduced from 55 to 36 seconds.
- Maximum HP per aircraft reduced from 1,900 to 1,500 (squadron HP reduced from 11,400 to 9,000).
- Base speed increased from 99 to 109 knots.
- Aircraft maximum flight range set to 31 kilometers.
- Torpedo Bombers:
- Maximum hangar aircraft increased from 10 to 12.
- Starting hangar aircraft reduced from 10 to 9.
- Aircraft restoration time reduced from 59 to 40 seconds.
- Maximum HP per aircraft reduced from 1,800 to 1,600 (squadron HP reduced from 10,800 to 9,600).
- Base speed increased from 90 to 97 knots.
- Aircraft maximum flight range set to 29 kilometers.
Halloween Update: New Friends, Old Foes
- Surface detectability range changed from 10.6 to 10.7 km; air detectability range changed from 7.4 to 7.5 km.
- Dive bomber HP changed from 1,800 to 1,900; torpedo bomber HP changed from 1,710 to 1,800.
March update: All That is Gold Does Not Glitter
- Damage from both dive and torpedo bombers increased by 5%.
- Their speed increased by 10 kts.
Halloween Update: Double the Fun, Double the Trouble
- Detectability range by sea increased from 8.4 to 10.6 km.
- Detectability range by air increased from 6.2 to 7.5 km.
Skins & permanent camouflages
Every custom exterior Langley can equip.
DefaultThe ship’s standard exterior
Primary official WG sources
Filtered to official World of Warships: Legends pages where this ship is a focus, reward, line member, or high-context variant mention.
