USS Gerald R. Ford Construction

Before WW2, yes. IIRC it didn’t work very well back then.

IIRC The USN looked at fitting cats on the hanger deck on a new stealth carrier, I saw it over on shipbucket…….

If we closed most of our foreign military bases, we could save billions, and we could use part of that money to build more carriers like the Ford.

Let the foreign countries that we now have bases at for their protection, protect themselves.

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Newport News Shipbuilding recently installed the final aircraft elevator platform on the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). The elevator is used to move aircraft from the hangar bay to the flight deck quickly and safely. Photo by Chris Oxley

Found them: Kaga, Akagi, Glorious, Courageous, and Furious.
The Japanese had 3 flight decks while the British had 2

in addition to those ships, the USN’s yorktown class carriers had a catapult on the hanger deck which could launch aircraft, but they proved ineffective in practice and were rarely used. the hanger deck catapult was not included in the design of the subsequent essex class carriers.

so all three of the the great carrier powers of WWII experimented with multi-deck launch and recovery operations in the pre-war era, but all three eventually abandoned such designs.

Found them: Kaga, Akagi, Glorious, Courageous, and Furious.
The Japanese had 3 flight decks while the British had 2

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First GaN AESA Radar program (for operational production)??

Did anyone ever contemplate launching a/c from another flight deck, below the upper flight deck ?

Before WW2, yes. IIRC it didn’t work very well back then.

An awe inspiring sight to behold.
It would be counter productive to escort this carrier with ‘stealth’ ships,
as you will want the escorts to be targeted rather than the carrier.
Guessing next generation carriers wont have a superstructure, at least none that occupy any possible flight deck.
Did anyone ever contemplate launching a/c from another flight deck, below the upper flight deck ?
By having the upper flight deck purely for landing, it would be possible to reduce RCS by orders of magnitude.

Shipbuilding CEO Sees Fixed-Price Incentive Contract For CVN-79 Carrier

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/asd_08_08_2013_p03-01-604894.xml

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http://www.thefordclass.com/events.html

I think that is correct as even if an Aircraft Carrier is Stealthy in Design. It will always have a number of aircraft on the desk. Which, will be a magnet for radar returns.

Guys, I am going to ask a similar question to that which is as yet unanswered on the CVF thread:

RCS reduction is obviously something that has to be considered these days, but do the designers of something as big as the Ford shrug their shoulders and think “there is only so much we can do”, or do they attempt to shape all the surfaces?

Not the real deal. Yet, these models give us a good sense of what the final product will look like!

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FLY NAVY😎

If the Ford had to include engine exhaust ducting (funnels) in the island like all the others (except Charles de Gaulle) it too would be larger.

The Ford also moves everything that doesn’t have to be in the island below-decks, where the Nimitz class still had some workspaces and equipment in the island that improving technology has now allowed to be relocated.

Good Points……….

If the Ford had to include engine exhaust ducting (funnels) in the island like all the others (except Charles de Gaulle) it too would be larger.

The Ford also moves everything that doesn’t have to be in the island below-decks, where the Nimitz class still had some workspaces and equipment in the island that improving technology has now allowed to be relocated.

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Interesting the USN has selected a single smaller island. Unlike other nations that have a single large island or two smaller ones like the CVF’s.

Those pics of the bow installation were taken 9 April 2013, and the island placement was on 26 January 2013.

Just to place them in their correct chronological context.

Placement of the bow section completed the flight deck.

On 6 May 2013 it was announced that launch has been pushed back from July 2013 to November 2013, and its delivery to the Navy has been delayed from September 2015 to early 2016.
http://hamptonroads.com/2013/05/launch-aircraft-carrier-ford-delayed-november

The last of 162 “superlifts”, the forward section of one of the waist catapults, was installed on 7 May 2013. This was the final piece of primary structure left, and the ship is now structurally complete.

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