To: Jeff Head
Thanks for the break, Jeff.
Here's a recent article from the Newport News, VA Daily Press
concerning the status of our nation's newest flattop, the USS Ronald
Reagan, CVN-76.
Seems the Reagan will have a redesigned island structure.
No pictures in the article, for obvious reasons. But if they've
put the island in place, launching can only be a few months away.
Rising
to the occasion
Yard lowers
Reagan's command center
By Fred Tannenbaum
Daily Press
Sunday Nov. 12, 2000
NEWPORT NEWS - "The ones that were built at Newport News Shipbuilding...
those that slid into the James River with their bows still sticky with
champagne, ah, they are the blue bloods of U.S. maritime history." -- William
S. Ellis, National Geographic, July 1985.
The six-story steel nerve center that will guide the aircraft
carrier Ronald Reagan eased up from the concrete apron next to the massive
ship, seemingly buoyed by applause and hoots that rose with it from the
ship's first sailors.
Using its 900-ton-capacity Goliath gantry crane, Newport News
Shipbuilding on Saturday morning hoisted a redesigned "island" at least
60 feet, eased it across the supercarrier's flight deck and then gently,
precisely lowered it into place on the port side.
The island is a 100-foot-long, 650-ton tower from which the ship
and her air operations are controlled. It also gives an aircraft carrier
its distinctive profile.
It will bear mute witness as screaming jets leap from the ship's
deck and return. In peace, certainly. And in war, if necessary.
As the light blue, 22-story crane edged the island into place,
its motion alarm bleated and hardhatted workers blew coaches' whistles
in a staccato cadence warning others to stay out of the way. The 100,000-ton
ship will remain in its birthplace, Dry Dock 12 or "12 Dock," for about
four more months.
"It's amazing," said Reagan crewman and Chief Photographers Mate
Michael Cole as the hulking gray structure with red, white and blue bunting
silently drifted about 10 feet in front of him.
The island is the first to be designed since the Nimitz-class
carriers were planned in the 1960s. The Reagan is the ninth member of the
class and the shipyard's 29th flat-top.
The island is 20 feet longer to accommodate a radar mast and enclosed
weapons elevator, said Harold Paxton, the Reagan's program director. It
is six decks tall instead of seven, but the ceiling on each level is nine
inches taller to handle more wiring and fiber optics. Areas overlooking
the flight deck have more space and larger windows.
Shipyard officials said the island also is the first to be designed
using a 3-D computer model and built indoors in a massive assembly building.
The 1,100-foot-long carrier itself also has several features,
including a bullet-shaped bow and fewer arresting cables, to be repeated
in the next ship, now known as CVN-77.
"This ship has been a challenge with the level of transition we've
had in it," D. Scott Stabler II, the shipyard's vice president of carrier
construction said, as the structure was lowered into place.
"But the shipbuilders here have risen to the occasion, and this
island is an example of that."
The lifting of fully assembled islands has become a big event
and source of pride among shipyard officials and workers. Newport News
Shipbuilding began the practice about 20 years ago when it began building
carriers in sections call "superlifts." Of the 190 or so superlifts making
up a carrier, the Reagan needs only three more.
"We're working our way to 'show time,' " Stabler told an audience
on the flight deck during a morning ceremony. The island still hung a few
inches from its final location behind him.
The ship's prospective skipper, Navy Capt. John Goodwin, placed
a gold medallion honoring President Reagan's promotion of national pride
and a pair of prized Naval aviator's gold wings beneath the island before
it was lowered. He also flicked a switch turning on lights outlining the
large ship's pendant numbers: 76.
"National Pride is the essence of what Newport News Shipbuilding
is doing here today on board Ronald Reagan," Goodwin said. "National Pride
are the sailors that stand around you and serve on Ronald Reagan."
The lift is the latest milestone in the fledgling life of the
ship, whose keel was laid in February 1998 and will be christened March
4. That date is the former president's and Nancy Reagan's 49th wedding
anniversary, shipyard officials said. Mrs. Reagan is the ship's sponsor.
The ship should be delivered to the Navy in February 2003.
35 Posted on 11/16/2000 17:52:29 PST by Al B.
To: Jeff Head
Alas, can't seem to search on the thread but here's the article:
PARIS (Reuters) - France's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the butt of jokes after disastrous initial sea trials, has a new problem -- its flight deck is too short.
Officials, reacting to an article Friday in the daily newspaper Le Parisien, confirmed the flight deck of the 20 billion franc ($3.5 billion) Charles de Gaulle might have to be lengthened by four meters (13 feet).
The carrier, which took 10 years to build, was designed in the mid-1980s, long before the French navy decided its complement of combat aircraft should be backed by airborne warning and control planes (AWACs.) The navy has since purchased several twin-engine EC2 Hawkeye AWACs planes from the United States of which two or three will be aboard the Charles de Gaulle.
``These are the most up-to-date Hawkeyes and they did not exist when the carrier was designed,'' an armed forces spokesman told reporters.
He said that in tests conducted in the United States it was found that in the most unfavorable weather the planes would be able to land but would find themselves at the very end of the deck when they did.
``They will not be able to safely pivot and turn around under their own power to head back to the center of the deck as things now stand. Of course, we can pull them back with tractors but it would still be better if the deck was longer and they could operate independently,'' a senior official told Reuters.
Further tests are expected but the official said if it was decided to lengthen the deck, the work would not prevent the ship from being operational next year.
The 34,600-tonne Charles de Gaulle had to abort its first sea trials in January due to propulsion problems.
Engineers then said there were several failures involving an electric motor linked to the main engines and that repairs could take anywhere from several days to several weeks.
The carrier can carry 40 planes and will replace France's last surviving aircraft carrier, the Foch, which has been in service for nearly 40 years.
Despite the high-technology on the new ship, the Foch can travel faster than the Charles de Gaulle -- 32 knots against 27.
43 Posted on 11/16/2000 18:06:22 PST by VadeRetro
USS Gridley, escort of the USS Okinawa
Another shot of the Gridley
USS Barbey
Another shot of the USS Barbey
USS Okinawa, LPH-3
