The modern supercarrier is widely referred to as a "city at sea." With between 5,000 and 6,000 people working, relaxing, eating and sleeping onboard for months at a time, this is certainly accurate. But it's not at all like any city you would find on dry land.
For starters, most residents have little opportunity to see the outside world. The flight deck, hangar and fantail all have wonderful views of the sea and sky, but they are so hectic and dangerous that only a handful of people are allowed access during normal operations. The top levels of the island are safe enough, but sensitive operations and limited space means you can't have a lot of people coming and going. A sailor who works below deck might go for weeks without ever seeing daylight.
Throughout the ship, conditions are much more cramped than in a normal city. To get from place to place, personnel have to scale nearly vertical steps and squeeze past each other in narrow corridors. The berthing compartments (sleeping quarters) are extremely tight. Enlisted personnel share a compartment with about 60 other people, all sleeping in single bunks, generally called racks, crammed together in stacks of three. Each person gets a small stowage bin and upright locker for clothes and personal belongings, and everybody in the compartment shares a bathroom and a small common area with a television hooked up to one of the carrier's satellite dishes. Officers enjoy more space and finer furnishings, but their space is limited, too. Everybody onboard has to get used to tight quarters.
Jobs are highly varied, just like in a normal city. Approximately 2,500 men and women form the air wing, the people who actually fly and maintain the aircraft. Another 3,000 or so people make up the ship's company, which keeps all parts of the carrier running smoothly -- this includes everything from washing dishes and preparing meals to handling weaponry and maintaining the nuclear reactors.
The ship has everything its residents need to live, even if it's not as comfortably as they would like. There are multiple galleys (kitchens) and mess halls onboard, which collectively serve as many as 18,000 meals a day. The ship also has a sizable laundry facility, dentist and doctor's offices, various stores and a bank of telephones where personnel can talk to their families via satellite.
Life onboard an aircraft carrier is undeniably difficult and exhausting, but it can also be exhilarating, especially for the men and women up on the flight deck, flying and bringing in planes on a tiny patch of runway. Good or bad, it's like no other place on earth.
For more information about aircraft carriers, check out the links below.
Basically, an aircraft carrier is an airfield at sea. Special features include catapults on the flight deck to assist in launching aircraft; for braking while landing, aircraft are fitted with retractable hooks that engage wires on the deck.
Located Immediately aft of the pilothouse is also the Captain's Sea Cabin where the C.O. (Commanding Officer) would live when the ship was underway. Here, he was close at hand should an emergency arise.
Other aircraft are stored on deck. In order for a carrier to deploy, it must embark one of ten Carrier Air Wings (CVW). The carriers can accommodate a maximum of 130 F/A-18 Hornets or 85–90 aircraft of different types, but current numbers are typically 64 aircraft.
The flight deck crew can launch two aircraft and land one every 37 seconds in daylight, and one per minute at night. Elevators — Each of the four deck edge elevators can lift two aircraft from the cavernous hangar deck to the 4½ -acre flight deck in seconds.
In recent years, the Navy has used nuclear propulsion systems for its submarines and most aircraft carriers and conventional propulsion systems that rely on fossil fuel for its surface combatants and amphibious warfare ships.
Forward of the Food Service Area, the Scullery, and the Emergency Diesel Generator, you will find the Messdeck. This was the eating place and lounge for the enlisted crew.
The flight-deck crew can keep a small number of aircraft up top, but there's not nearly enough room for the 80 to 100 aircraft stationed on a typical carrier. When they're not in use, most of the aircraft are secured in the hangar bay, the "carrier's garage."
On a Nimitz class carrier, the flight deck is the 04 level. The hanger deck or main deck is 4 decks down and each deck is about 8 feet more or less. The water level is somewhere around the 3rd or 4th deck which is 3 to 4 decks down. Probably closer to the 3rd deck so that's about 50 feet or maybe a little more.
An aircraft will typically hit the deck at 150 mph, expecting to trap one of three arresting cables to get stopped before the end of the flight deck. Even highly experienced pilots are respectfully nervous of the carrier landing – and that keeps them alive.
It was a huge 2 engine attack bomber designed specifically for carrier operations. The record for the largest and heaviest plane to ever land on, and take off from, a carrier is the C-130 Hercules. This was during tests carried out in 1963.
Landing on an aircraft carrier is often described as the toughest task for a Navy pilot. The pilot has to line up with the runway correctly, come in at the correct angle, and stop the plane in a short distance for a successful landing.
The arresting wires are stretched across the deck and are attached on both ends to hydraulic cylinders below deck. If the tailhook snags an arresting wire, it pulls the wire out, and the hydraulic cylinder system absorbs the energy to bring the plane to a stop.
In combat, frequent resupply—every two or three days—is a necessity. For example, a carrier battle group may use as much as 12,000 barrels of aviation and ship fuel, 150 tons of ordnance, and 30 tons of stores in one day when conducting surge operations.
And without protection, an aircraft carrier is extremely vulnerable. That's why aircraft carriers never leave home alone. They are always escorted by an extensive flotilla of other ships. The aircraft carrier plus the flotilla is known as the carrier battle group.
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Introduction: My name is Maia Crooks Jr, I am a homely, joyous, shiny, successful, hilarious, thoughtful, joyous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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