Posted on 11/29/2011 4:30:33 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
China's first aircraft carrier starts second trial
(AFP) – 6 hours ago
BEIJING — China's first aircraft carrier began its second sea trial on Tuesday after undergoing refurbishments and testing, the government said, as tensions over maritime territorial disputes in the region ran high.
The 300-metre (990-foot) ship, a refitted former Soviet carrier called the Varyag, underwent five days of trials in August that sparked international concern about China's widening naval reach.
"China's aircraft carrier platform, after successfully completing its first sea trial in August, returned to the shipyard as planned for further refitting and testing," the defence ministry said in a brief statement.
"The work has been carried out and it set sail again on November 29 to carry out relevant scientific and research experiments."
Beijing only confirmed this year that it was revamping the old Soviet ship and has repeatedly insisted that the carrier poses no threat to its neighbours and will be used mainly for training and research purposes.
But the August sea trials were met with concern from regional powers including Japan and the United States, which called
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Nice casino. /s
Rub-a-dub-dub. Three men in a tub.
So, has it conducted any air operations yet, like landing and/or launching aircraft? Or are they still fooling around with getting the bugs out of the ship’s physical plant?
You are referring to what the Chinese told the Russians what they had planned for the hulk when they bought it - that they were going to use it for a floating Casino.
The clear point here is never believe the Chinese - they will lie to your face.
It has an appropriately “sloped” flight deck.
Confucius say man who buy ski-jump ship on slippery slope
The trouble with making so many enemies is that if the ship suddenly develops profound problems at sea, everyone has plausible deniability, because it might have been caused by anyone.
This thing has 50 round aircraft? Now there’s some advanced technology. Our planes always have those pointy noses, but not the Chinese. They put round noses on their planes. Like a duck.
Granted, they stripped a lot of stuff from it which would need to be replaced but is thirty years old for a ship? How good was it when the Soviets built it? Are the ski-jump ramps a popular design?
Ski-ramps are not as capable as catapults when it comes to the ability of planes to take off with greater loads (of fuel and/or weapons). However only 3 countries currently use carriers that have catapults - the US, the French and the Brazilians.
There is some good (actually very good considering the person claims to be an amateur who put this together using available information and making the illustrations himself) information on aircraft carriers from around the globe.
Also, our own FReeper Jeff Head (copied) has a nice website that has information on various carriers.
And here are some pictures of her heading out for this trial:
She was in refit for 3 months. Spent dry dock time for over half of that. She left port with an aviation fuel truck on board, on the flight deck which emplies that her aviation fuel handling system is having troubles. She also has not installed the arrestor trap wires yet.
It is expected she will be manuevering, te4sting engines, sensors, and probably landing some helos. Her strike fighters are not reayd yet. They have two of the original prototype J-15s which are an improved, Chinese version of the Russian SU-33. They have two of those aircraft now in PLAN colors which implies at least low level production, but they are a long ways from having a full wing of them, and then even longer before enough pilots are fully trained in carrier operations.
But, she is complete and on trials and the other nations in the area, including us, are taking note.
The Chinese are supposedly building two more carriers currently as we speak.
For the history of their refit, from start to now, read this:
TRANSFORMING THE VARYAG INTO A FULLY OPERATIONAL PLAN CARRIER
ping
Among the catapult users, only the US and France have enough spare power from their nuclear/steam engines to launch ‘heavy’ aircraft with weights of 20 or more tonnes. So that’s one reason why the Russians and Chinese have stuck with ski-jumps. I believe that the new electro-magnetic capapult system being developed for the USN would negate the need for nuclear power.
Not for US carriers. The EM cats are going to use a lot of power themselves. And the US FORD class has nuclear plants that are 200% more powerful than the earlier reactors. The US Navy has plans for that power...think Laser CIWS, railgun, etc.
Do you, or anyone else here, remember when China bought this carrier? I recall that there were many posters on FR that claimed it was a useless hull, and it was going to really be a casino.
There were a few of us here that knew this day would come.
Well at least the air quality is awesome there!!!!
You are correct - with the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine got a half finished carrier, six tee shirts and a pack of gum.
The Chong Lot Travel Agency was the buyer of the carrier at auction. Remember that name.
You can't change Physics. Force through a distance is still work energy.
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