UK Carrier Aviation thread

Formal acknowledgement that the UK will have two carriers:

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/uk39s-second-aircraft-carrier-will-enter-service-403407/

Quite possibly my favorite picture from the RN in the last 15 years. I hope that it is a harbinger for the future and not the swan song of the RN as a global force ( love the illustrious class carrier in the background). As a unabashed fan of the history of the Royal Navy, I do hope that Scotland decides that a strong, united U.K. will continue to build on a 400+ year maritime history.

Thales is confident updated Searchwater will be available early for Crowsnest, whilst Lockheed has started testing Vigilance at Boscombe Down (on a Merlin?):

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/thales-nears-flight-tests-for-royal-navy-crowsnest-bid-403553/

Formal acknowledgement that the UK will have two carriers:

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/uk39s-second-aircraft-carrier-will-enter-service-403407/

So with at least 2 sections shown in the pic and I’m sure the bulb bow is on site as well, how much longer before they get put into the dry dock?

A bit blurred photograph of Rosyth taken from well outside the exclusion zone showing the carrier.

Section lower block 03 of HMS Prince of Wales due to arrives in Rosyth on the 2nd August

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If only 🙂

indeed if only they bought the x-32 instead
its as handsome as me

HMS Ocean takes ammunition onboard today and will be ready to take over from Lusty who returns to her home port for the last time today

Many nations carrier designs have either long islands or forward positioned islands….in fact it’s only the US that does the small/aft configuration.

Having the conning position with a view over the bows is a good idea for obvious reasons. Separating ship and air control functions is also sensible for basic resilience and operational efficiency factors. The USN sacrifices ship handling for the clearer deck and optimal aircraft handling. The twin island approach is the compromise between best possible ship and air ops.

In addition, note that both islands have a large exhaust.

This is because under each island, in the supporting sponson, is a MT-30 gas turbine. These are the “high-power” generators of electrical power to drive the electric motors on the shafts for flight operations and other high-speed sailing (the diesel generators in the lower hull are for cruising and to power the rest of the ship’s electrical system).

This allows each gt to have short intake & exhaust runs (saving volume inside the ship and simplifying damage control and chemical warfare compartmentalization), allows easy access to change out the gts (gts are repaired by replacement, not taken apart in the ship, so easy access is important), and separates the gts so that no single anti-ship missile hit, or a fire on one gt, can damage or destroy both.

The double island is an extremely practical set-up.

As for the USN carriers – all of them have cameras at the bow, allowing the navigator/helmsman/OOW to see clearly what is in front of the ship.

There is also a “secondary conn” in the bow, just below the flight deck. When entering or leaving port (as well as when at “general quarters) this is manned – and in case the cameras go down and the bridge crew is unable to see forward or are incapacitated there are portholes in the front of this compartment that can be opened to allow direct viewing of what is in front of the ship.

These can be seen in this photo of CV-61 Ranger in July 1959 (between the catapult “horns”), and on this deck layout of CV-60 Saratoga at her decommissioning in 1994. The photo of CV-67 JFK also shows them. While reduced from 5 to 2, they are still present in all 9 Nimitz class CVNs, just on either side of the centerline, as shown in this May 2000 photo of CVN-75 Truman.

Interestingly, CVN-78 Ford does not have the centerline portholes – but it appears that there is one on each outside corner of the bow, as seen here (unless these are navigation lights).

NOTE: the photos attached in reverse order, so Ford is the first and Ranger is the last.

I can not understand why there are two towers. Every nation is building aircraft carriers with one tower only and they get smaller and smaller (Ford class).

Many nations carrier designs have either long islands or forward positioned islands….in fact it’s only the US that does the small/aft configuration.

Having the conning position with a view over the bows is a good idea for obvious reasons. Separating ship and air control functions is also sensible for basic resilience and operational efficiency factors. The USN sacrifices ship handling for the clearer deck and optimal aircraft handling. The twin island approach is the compromise between best possible ship and air ops.

I can not understand why there are two towers. Every nation is building aircraft carriers with one tower only and they get smaller and smaller (Ford class).

Advantages of the two island configuration on the Royal Navy carriers

Instead of a traditional single island, a current ship design has two smaller islands. The forward island is for ship control functions and the aft (FLYCO) island is for flying control.

Advantages of the two island configuration are increased flight deck area, reduced air turbulence over the flight deck and increased flexibility of space allocation in the lower decks. The flight control centre in the aft island is in the optimum position for control of the critical aircraft approach and deck landings.

http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/cvf/

BAE System’s Steve Dowdell, Director of Mission Systems for the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, who explains that thanks to miles of fibre optic cables and years of testing this is a ship of ‘firsts’.

“The thing that’s really different about this system from any other carrier in the world is everything is integrated, in the sense that if you’ve got a bit of information in one compartment you can then see that anywhere else on the ship.”
…
“We are the only aircraft carrier in the world with two islands, which means we can separate our transmit/receive antennas, it gives us more real estate for comms. Whereas the US carriers are really strapped for space with their single island system, we’ve got 80m between the two island structures.”

Having two islands not only gives the carriers a tactical advantage but it also provides valuable space for even more tech to be crammed into the vessel.

“We have over 1000 PCs and Laptops distributed around each ship, once that system has committed the information it can then be accessed anywhere else.”

Sadly this doesn’t mean you can ‘drive’ the ship from the mess room, but what it does mean is that the carriers each have their own network which can do everything from letting you stream films, to accessing secure tactical information, all from the same terminal.

http://www.t3.com/news/aca-creates-largest-network-on-new-uk-aircraft-carriers

The aft structure is home to Flyco – Flying Control, effectively the carrier’s equivalent of an airport control tower. Ship operations are managed from the forward Island.
I would imagine that if necessary each island can to some extent take over the other island’s tasks, giving a degree of redundancy in case of battle damage.

I can not understand why there are two towers. Every nation is building aircraft carriers with one tower only and they get smaller and smaller (Ford class).

From a purely aesthetic point af view, i’m not keen on the two towers. (no Lord of the rings jokes please! 😀 )

Have seen where they had tied QE up on the Western wall of the docks the other day, I ventured along with my camera this morning.

HMS Illustrious is set to sail into her home port of Portsmouth for the last time on Tuesday ahead of her retirement next month and decommissioning latter this year

HMS Ocean has started her helicopter work up today with a visit from 771 Sea-kings and navy lynx which sadly means Lusty will start working down to decommissioning

Which means that assembly of the Prince of Wales can now begin :eagerness:.

YES, she already has wet feet !! … and nobody told us ???

http://bbs.dsjunshi.com/forum.php?mod=viewtree&tid=763361&extra=page%3D1

Deino

well, she’s officially floating now!

65,000 tonne #HMSQueenElizabeth looks majestic after rising off her blocks for the first time:

If only 🙂

P.s. – not the X-32 😉

Nice concept art.