News The Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier has left its home port for the first time.

[Notebook]

The 65,000 tonne warship is the Royal Navy's first aircraft carrier since HMS Ark Royal was scrapped in 2010.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-40402153

There are 364,000m of pipes inside the ship

https://www.renemagritte.org/the-treachery-of-images.jsp

Biggest we have had for a while, just got to figure out what the aircraft will do....

N.

 

[Mojave]

Oooh, I like this. It's so pretty, shiny, and new. Where can I buy one?

 

[Notebook]

Easy, all yours for £3Billion, but aircraft not supplied...

 

[Mojave]

Easy, all yours for £3Billion, but aircraft not supplied...

Haha! You made my day, man.

 

[Andy44]

Oooh, I like this. It's so pretty, shiny, and new. Where can I buy one?

You're an American. You already have like 10 of 'em, with nuclear reactors to boot, play with your own toys and leave the neighbor's kid alone.

On a related note: The official name of the F-35 is the "Lightning II", named for the Lockheed P-38 Lightning of WWII fame.

However, the UK also had a fighter called the Lightning, built of English Electric if memory serves.

So will the RAF and RN come up with their own name for the F-35 series, or just roll with the current name? When Spain bought Harriers (Harrier II actually) they renamed them "Matador" which I think is an awful name for such a cool jet, which has a very British name and whose design heritage is so obviously British-looking despite the US collaborated redesign.

---------- Post added at 06:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:01 PM ----------

Oops, looks like wiki answered my question: the name refers to both the P-38 and the EE Lightning:

On 7 July 2006, the U.S. Air Force, the lead service for the aircraft, officially announced the name of the F-35: Lightning II, in honor of Lockheed's World War II-era twin-propeller Lockheed P-38 Lightning for the United States Army Air Forces and the Cold War-era jet, the English Electric Lightning for the Royal Air Force.[34][N 2]

---------- Post added at 06:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:03 PM ----------

Also, that article states the ship's top speed as 25 knots. Surely it is faster than that?

 

[boogabooga]

It's ironic that conspicuously absent in this design are both British inventions that have come to define the modern carrier:
stream catapult and the angled flight deck.

So basically, the Royal Navy is making an all-in bet on the STOVL version of the F-35. Isn't that the version that's having the most problematic development? I seem to recall some years ago that version was in danger of being cancelled.

 

[Andy44]

It's ironic that conspicuously absent in this design are both British inventions that have come to define the modern carrier:
stream catapult and the angled flight deck.

So basically, the Royal Navy is making an all-in bet on the STOVL version of the F-35. Isn't that the version that's having the most problematic development? I seem to recall some years ago that version was in danger of being cancelled.

I doubt that; that was about 7 years ago. The F-35B is currently in service with the USMC as of 2015.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

The CATOBAR variant of the F-35 has the most issues at present, iirc. They're still chasing a serious issue with extreme bouncing on catstroke.

 

[Notebook]

Well, you gain one, you lose one:

http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-an...ll-visit-to-her-affiliated-city-of-sunderland

Its being de-commissioned next year. Last departure from her adopted port.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ocean_(L12)