So it's aviation battleship or aircraft cruiser? Do I trust wikipedia or Kancollewiki?
Ise was a battleship, thus Aviation Battleship (senkan), while cruisers would be junyokan.
But, no, this isn't the first time that mistake was made in translations. Uchuu Senkan Yamato was translated as Space Cruiser Yamato for many years (during a time when there were no battleship in service anywhere in the world, and the largest surface combat ship were cruisers), even by the Japanese when selling it to the Americans and Europeans. Only later did someone bother to point out that Senkan is battleship. It turned out that the Japanese knew that, just the executive producer wanted to use cruiser as it reflecting his private boat, plus cruiser was less....war related for the mid-1970s Western audience, who was still heavily worn out from Vietnam and many, many anti-war protests.
(I've never seen the use of "Aircraft Cruiser" in any western naval history texts. So that might be a tranlation of a non-English source. This is also partly because, Aircraft Carrier, (CV) is basically suppose to be "Aircraft Cruiser" by its purpose, since "C" is the cruiser designator. Thus, having a classification called "Aircraft Cruiser" for ships like Mogami or some of the later hybrid ships is weird)
That Wikipedia article has significant issues (lack of citations, mainly) that are pointed out in the article's 'header'. It also appears to be heavily inspired by the Russian version of the article.
Searching around on the Internet seems to reveal "aircraft cruiser" as being heavily associated with Russian ships, in particular as a translation of Авианесущий крейсер (literally "aircraft-carrying cruiser"), used for the the Kiev and Kuznetsov-class, to dodge treaty restrictions. For some reason (Russian wiki contributors, maybe?) the term has also seeped into some other Wikipedia articles (and some other websites that copy-paste from Wikipedia), but I've almost never heard of "aircraft cruiser" being used by anglephone militaries, as ithekro mentions.
The Mogami-class sometimes get called either aircraft cruisers or aviation cruisers, but the latter term dominates because it's a more direct translation from Japanese 「航空巡洋艦」.
(The Tone-class is sometimes mentioned as well, but their aircraft capabilities don't get referred to as often [in their ship type]. In most Western sources they are described more often as "heavy cruisers" with aviation facilities.)
The Ise-class post Midway usually gets described as "battleships with aviation facilities" or sometimes "hybrid battleship-carriers", at least in military sources. Before Kancolle, "aviation battleship" as a direct translation for 「航空戦艦」 seemed to be only mostly used by model ship manufacturers (e.g. Tamiya), and maybe some translations of Japanese war documents. Use of the term on the Internet became more common after the release of Kancolle (just search for "aviation battleship" and see how many Kancolle-related links pop up).
In any case, "aviation battleship" is an adequate translation for 「航空戦艦」, so, yeah, let's go with that. Calling Ise an "aircraft cruiser" post-refit wouldn't make sense since it implies a significant downgrade in guns and/or armor (granted, the Ise-class were still obsolete, but they're genuine battleships, not 'up-rated' battlecruisers like the Kongous).
@NNescio, just as a heads up: I'm deleting some of the "white-space: nowrap" CSS lines in the title notes of some strips in this pool. On mobile, some titles are just too long to display on one line.
By Xiujia_yihuiziNo, you listen to me...Since I'm capable of aviation, I must have the ability to fly!First of the Ise-class dreadnaught battleships, Ise.Nice, I can feel my metamorphosis settling in! I'm an aviation battleship now, aviation.Returning to the battlefield as an aviation battleship! That aviation means you are able to carry aircraft...Why!? I'm supposed to be an aviation battleship! Why can't I fly!?
Start Building!
Episode 12: Of Course Aviation Battleships
Can't Fly, You Are Not Enterprise After All
