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Discussion
yellowjack said:
Again, I'll assume it's a serious question.
No. There are no catapults, nor any arresting wires or other barrier assistance for recovering aircraft on the Royal navy's new carriers. It is a STOVL (Short Take Off, Vertical Landing) carrier and aside from helicopters of all shapes and sizes, and any Harriers that allied nations might operate from the deck (US Marine Corps AV-8B for example) the only fixed wing aircraft likely to launch from or recover onto them will be the F-35B aircraft we are currently purchasing for the RAF and Fleet Air Arm at great expense. A "ski-jump" ramp is fitted up front to assist such STOVL aircraft getting airborne at combat weight, but "conventional" fast jet fixed wing assets will not have suitable facilities upon which to land or take off.
If the design had matured as an angled flight-deck 'CATOBAR' (Catapult Take Off, Barrier Assisted Recovery) asset, then the UK might well have been able to buy "off the shelf" F/A-18 Hornets or Superhornets from the US, and the bill for building the carriers would be larger but the lower purchase and operating costs of the embarked air wing would have evened out the equation. but all that is academic now, as the vessels were designed and built in such a way that retrofitting CATOBAR equipment is a complete non starter due to lack of internal space for such equipment. We are pretty much stuck with the two ships as they are, now, but at least we have some aircraft carriers again, a force projection asset which has been lacking in the RN since the last of the Invincible Class (HMS Illustrious) was retired in 2014.
HMS Illustrious (top) alongside HMS Queen Elizabeth, her eventual replacement. The new carriers are a great deal larger than the three-ship class they now replace.
Im sure this is a really stupid question but...No. There are no catapults, nor any arresting wires or other barrier assistance for recovering aircraft on the Royal navy's new carriers. It is a STOVL (Short Take Off, Vertical Landing) carrier and aside from helicopters of all shapes and sizes, and any Harriers that allied nations might operate from the deck (US Marine Corps AV-8B for example) the only fixed wing aircraft likely to launch from or recover onto them will be the F-35B aircraft we are currently purchasing for the RAF and Fleet Air Arm at great expense. A "ski-jump" ramp is fitted up front to assist such STOVL aircraft getting airborne at combat weight, but "conventional" fast jet fixed wing assets will not have suitable facilities upon which to land or take off.
If the design had matured as an angled flight-deck 'CATOBAR' (Catapult Take Off, Barrier Assisted Recovery) asset, then the UK might well have been able to buy "off the shelf" F/A-18 Hornets or Superhornets from the US, and the bill for building the carriers would be larger but the lower purchase and operating costs of the embarked air wing would have evened out the equation. but all that is academic now, as the vessels were designed and built in such a way that retrofitting CATOBAR equipment is a complete non starter due to lack of internal space for such equipment. We are pretty much stuck with the two ships as they are, now, but at least we have some aircraft carriers again, a force projection asset which has been lacking in the RN since the last of the Invincible Class (HMS Illustrious) was retired in 2014.
HMS Illustrious (top) alongside HMS Queen Elizabeth, her eventual replacement. The new carriers are a great deal larger than the three-ship class they now replace.
Why is there a plane on the new carrier ? did they need to see if it would fit ? Have they not heard of a tape measure ?
davidexige said:
ApOrbital said:
I was going to ask the same question.
I believe It was a dummy aircraft that was put there for display when the Queen visited Rosyth to christen the ship.Edited by davidexige on Sunday 15th December 17:21
Although there is now a real aeroplane stuck on HMS QE in Portsmouth Dockyard. Apparently it "went tech" on the cruise back to the UK and couldn't be flown off before the ship docked, and not they're struggling to find a window in the foul weather we've been having that has suitable wind conditions to get it airborne safely...
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