Aircraft Carrier-Nimitz Class

The first part is introduce how the aircraft carrier work, such launch planes, landing, and supply
(ammunition, jet fuel, food).

 The following figures captured and information excerpted from :
National Geographic & Discovery Channel.

Big, Bigger, Biggest : Aircraft Carrier
Extreme Engineering : Biggest Warship USS George H. W. Bush (CVN-77)
Inside Super Carrier

Flight Deck

Flight Deck















































The catapult is the most important key for aircraft carrier, without it the plane can not be launched
into the air. U.S.A hold the patent of the Catapult, no other countries can manufacture the catapult. See the British or Russia carrier which can not launch the fighter like Nimitz Class.

The catapult was steam driven.

Zipper.
Did the " Catapult "    use like this zipper mechanism to avoid the leaking of steam ??

Bugatti Veyron. National Geographic Ultimate Factories

Taxi the plane into the position. The front bar touched the plane and shuttle.
The rear bar hold the plane in the place, until launch.

The nuclear reactor powered the steam and steam pressure must be measured. Too little pressure, the plane won't fly into the air. Too much pressure, the nose gear can rip off.

Jet Blast Deflector



Bring the aircraft from 150 mph to the complete stop in less than 2 seconds.

Optical Landing System, also called Meat Ball.
Assist the pilot  landing on the deck.
The central yellow bulb would move up and down to indicate the pilot the "glideslope"  

If the plane approach is too high or too low, the red bulb would be activated
and signal the pilot avoiding the landing.

Arresting Gear Wire
Each wire are connected with the hydraulic cylinder in the arresting gear engine room.

As the plane's tailhook snaps one wire, the wire pulls the piston through the cylinder. Like a giant shock absorber, the cylinder hydraulic fluid absorbs tremendous energy from the moving plane.

Reactor

The Nimitz Class are powered by two nuclear reactor and embedded deep in the ship. The reactors are highly classified and heavily protected.

Inside the reactor. The Uranium control the fusion. They released energy to heat the hot water.

The extremely hot water passed through the exchanger produced steam to drive the turbine and
spin the generator to produce ship's power. The white is the exchanger.  The green is the turbine.One reactor can do all the things we need to do on board, so two reactors provide some
redundance and flexibility. The reactor was designed for running twenty years.

Primary Flight Control

Primary Flight Control
Primary coordinates day time flight in good weather.

Air Traffic Control

Air Traffic Control

As visibility is poor or at night "Air Traffic Control' will take over,using radar to track the fighter.

Hangar Bay


Hangar Bay

Supply

Supply Ship

JP-5 Jet Fuel

Food Supply

Weapon

Vulcan M61

No room for the hoist. Use the manpower to reload the bomb.



Go Home



Before Go Home. It made an important stop in Pearl Harbor. To honor American sailors who lost here in the WWII

Salute to USS Arizona Memorial
This is really true patriotic behavior.

Home Port of San Diego California. According to the Navy tradition, sailors who become a new father during the deployment are the first on shore.


The Manufacturing of Aircraft Carrier



Newport News Shipbuilding

Build the dry dock, next lay the keel. Now it's time to get preassemblies going. These things are huge sections of aircraft carrier fully built alongside the ship. They got their doors, hallways, electrical systems. Then the crane operator can pick up one of those pieces and put it exactly where it needs to go. Repeat the process 162 times, finish the aircraft carrier.