Following on from January’s World’s biggest passenger ships post, today we’re going to be looking at the largest aircraft carriers on the water. These warships act as mobile airbases, allowing aircraft to be launched as close to the theatre of war as possible.
Starting with the largest, the undisputed Queen of the seas is the USS Enterprise, which takes the title of being the largest naval vessel on Earth (or water!), with a massive length of 342.3 metres.
Enterprise is moored up alongside the almost-as-large USS Harry Truman and Roosevelt. Like the other seven of the Nimitz class carriers, these are 333m long. Roosevelt, nicknamed ‘Rough Rider’, was responsible for nearly 5000 tonnes of bombs dropped during the first Gulf War.
The Naval Station at Norfolk, Virginia, where these three ships reside when not on active duty, is actually the largest naval base in the World, with 75 ships calling it home - as well as having, incidentally, a huge amount of car-parking spaces!
The USS George HW Bush is the last in Nimitz class, before the new Ford class carriers start being built, and is named for former President Bush. Costing a whopping $4.5 billion, this 333m carrier is on track to be delivered this year. She is seen here in construction at the Northrop Grumman shipyard, also in Norfolk.
(You can see a Microsoft Live Maps birds eye view of it in construction here, but sadly it still isn’t compatible with Safari!)
Back in 1957, the largest naval vessel ever built was the Forrestal Class USS Ranger, which measures 319m and is capable of carrying up to 90 aircraft aboard.
Ranger is seen here with Forrestal class USS Independence and the Kitty Hawk class USS Constellation, which have all been decommissioned to the Naval Air Station in Bremerton, WA.
Now taking the role of the Sea, Air and Space museum in New York City, the USS Intrepid saw service from World War 2 right through to 1974, including in the Vietnam war, where planes would often be launched from her in intervals as small as every 26 seconds!
In late 2006 Intrepid was dragged out of the Hudson river’s mud (with considerable effort) and transferred to Staten Island for repair work. She is expected to be back on display in September.
The most noticeable of Intrepid’s aircraft is the Lockheed A-12, the precursor to the SR-71 Blackbird which is famed for flying from New York to London in 1 hour 54 minutes! You might recognise the plane from ‘I am Legend’, where Will Smith’s character spends time hitting golf balls from her wing.
She may be just a wee tiddler at 214m (this photo shows a comparison between a Nimitz class ship and the HMS Illustrious), but it would be wrong to not include at least one British vessel! HMS Invincible was decommissioned in 2005, and is seen here at Portsmouth Harbour. She’s definitely going nowhere - you can see her propellers lying on the deck!
She was superseded by HMS Illustrious - found in dry-dock in Rosyth having a refit, which was completed last year. In 2014, the first of the new Queen Elizabeth class carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth is due to enter service, at a much more substantial 274m in length. HMS Prince of Wales will join her in 2016.
Previosuly on Google Sightseeing: Carrier Landing Practice Runway and Landlocked.
Thanks: Andrew, Kevin, tsw and many, many others!
Locations: England, New York, Virginia, Washington / Categories: Structures, Theme Parks, Watercraft
View in Google Earth
You’re reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2008 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
October 9th, 2007 at 12:10 am
Here’s a few more carriers:
The Russian-built, now in Chinese possession ex-Varyag:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
The sister ship, still operational in Russia, is here:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
The French Charles de Gaulle:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
The Brazilian (ex-French) Sao Paulo:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Italian Giuseppe Garibaldi:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
October 9th, 2007 at 12:11 am
@Force of Freedom
Thanks for the clarification on those.
unfortunately there are supposed to be columns and everything should line up, but due the small comment window here i had to try to squeeze things close, did make things a little confusing.
On the list for USS Midway I put “not found” under what is supposed to be the G.E. column.
And for Oriskany, it can be seen in G.E. at Corpus Christi as noted in the link in the above comment, TX and seen in Beaumont in Live Maps.
October 9th, 2007 at 12:12 am
My previous comment seems to have been eaten, so here goes again. I had been clarifying some of the information on nova72’s list of US Navy carriers.
Midway’s (CV 41) berth in San Diego as a museum ship is currently not visable in Google’s data set, but Yahoo Maps has her, as does Virtual Earth.
And USS Oriskany was not sunk off Corpus Christi, TX, but instead off Pensacola, FL in May 2006. Her location as an artificial reef and dive spot in the Gulf of Mexico is Placemark: here / Google Earth. She is, however, still afloat in Placemark: Google’ data set / Google Earth.
October 9th, 2007 at 12:13 am
@vanbarel and cookie monster
This carrier in dry dock is not G. R. Ford. Construction on CVN 78/ G.R. Ford began in early 2007. See Article Here - http://hamptonroads.com/node/241601
The ship in dry dock is too far along to be Ford.
The dry dock ship is actually CVN 70/ Carl Vinson. The ship is undergoing a Refueling Complex Overhaul (RCOH) See Articles Here - http://www.navysite.de/cvn/cvn70hist.htm
and
http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/70.htm
and very cool video of the flooding of the dry dock in mid 2007 http://www.news.navy.mil/manag.....px?id=9538
You can barely see the numbers on the ship in Live Maps
Here is the “7″
http://maps.live.com/default.a.....;encType=1
and here is the “0″
http://maps.live.com/default.a.....;encType=1
October 9th, 2007 at 12:14 am
I’m no military genius but to me it seems daft to have such a huge aircraft carriers which, God forbid, should ever suffer a fatal attack would leave a big hole in the USA’s military resources. Surely wouldnt it be more practical to have more, smaller carriers that arent such big targets and perhaps wouldnt be missed as much a these huge ones if one was to be lost
Perhaps i should write to G W Bush telling him of my idea.
October 9th, 2007 at 12:15 am
Next to the George HW Bush you can see the Gerald R Ford (CVN 21), the first of the Ford Class carriers in construction to be deployed around 2015.
It will be the 1st of a new generation of Carriers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.....ft_carrier
Note: I believe it was during Ronald Reagan presidency that US Navy set the strategy to always have 13 Aircraft Carriers on active duty.
October 9th, 2007 at 12:16 am
Cheers, turtle - my mistake! Edited.
October 9th, 2007 at 12:17 am
I put the wrong link.
Placemark: View Larger Map / Google Earth
October 9th, 2007 at 12:18 am
The decommissioned carriers are located in Bremerton, Washington. Not San Diego.
However, there is a carrier at North Island San Diego.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
October 9th, 2007 at 12:19 am
Is that another carrier being built right next to George HW Bush in dry dock?
How many aircraft carriers does one country need?