[SamAdams76]

Excellent article. I have always been a big fan of aircraft carriers and wish we had more of them. I think 15 is a good number to have. That would allow us to put maybe seven in the Pacific, five in the Atlantic/Med/Indian Ocean area and have three spares that can be used as replacements while the others are undergoing maintainance/retrofitting.

BTW, even though I was in the military, I still do not get why we have nautical miles instead of statute miles and knots instead of mph. Can anybody explain why distance and speed are measured differently at sea (and air)?

[cva66snipe]

Can anybody explain why distance and speed are measured differently at sea (and air)?

I'll give it a guess. Knots is an excepted International Standard Measurement of speed and distance standardizing navigation maps and charts between nations. It lessens confusion in that respect. I think we are the only nation to use miles as a distance measurement in civilian terms. Knots and nautical is a maritime term.

[dalereed]

Cause that's the way it's always been, don't mess with it, let miles be stranded with carsw.

[aShepard]

I still do not get why we have nautical miles instead of statute miles and knots instead of mph.

The ball of earth is divided into 360 degrees. At the latitude of the equator, and at each degree of longitude is equal to 60 nautical miles. As each hour has 60 minutes, and each minute has 60 seconds, the reference plane has a common base.

Thus 40.30.40 degrees north; 50.30.35 degrees west (of Greenwich England) will place you in a square about 100 feet square, somewhere near the east coast of the US.

Knots became a common speed measurement in early mariners time, based on how many knots tied equidistantly into a line with a float at the end, would be dragged over the moving boats transom in a given period of time