Lexington was originally slated to be the first in a line of forty-three thousand–ton battle cruisers, but was converted to a thirty-six thousand–ton aircraft carrier in response to the limitations on naval construction set by the Washington Conference. Commissioned in 1927, Lexington and her sister-ship Saratoga were still the largest carriers in the world in 1941. During the war Lexington carried as many as ninety-one aircraft.