uhhh...I remember the MonGoose turning around and not running the first leg cause the water was a bit rough??

Or did you forget that part? :cool-smiley-011:

Just wondering why most Fountains ran and you turned around :evilb:

Use must have good clearence to get that close for pictures these days. I got within 300 yards of a docked battleship here in Tpa and the wave off I got was "move away or else" I wasn't upset just cant blame them for being cautiuos and not wanting to be another Cole disaster.

68 seems really high even for two big nuke reactors. The drag at that speed for that hull must be hurrendous.

I don't know if this is true or not, but a guy from an aicraft carrier that was in port here told me that to slow-down and eventually stop a carrier that they put it in full throttle reverse from 5 miles out. Sounds good to me. Anybody know for sure?

either way thats frik'n haul'in :eek:

When I was in the TEAMS, we would do ops off the carriers all the time. Once out to sea, and they opened her up, the wake would be between 20 and 30ft high, and a hundred yards across. There's no jumping that baby.



Darrell.

My Dad was on the FDR (diesel/steam carrier) from 1959-1962.

I just asked him a few questions.

Full speed fully loaded was 37 knots. (Would do so at full speed into the wind when launching aircraft.)
Wake was 100 yards wide, and 20-30 feet tall.
68mph for an unloaded nuclear carrier is definitely feasible per his thoughts, but all current data is classifed.

The full reverse at 5 miles out is accurate, if not further out.
The ship had a two mile turning radius for a 180* turn at speed.

Unusual FACT:
They were launching a small fighter of the time period, like an F-4 or something. The catapult malfunctioned, and the plane basically went off the front of the ship and under the hull. Folks inside the ship actually heard it scraping down the hull. The pilot was convinced he was going to die via the 4 screws as big as 3 story homes. The plane went out the back of the ship THROUGH the 4 screws untouched, and popped to the surface upright. He opened the canopy, and was plucked up by one of the two (always in flight when planes are airborne) rescue helicopters. He only got wet from the knees down. They dropped him on the deck of the ship, and he threw down his helmet and wings and called it quits. True story.

Nominal design of all Navy combat ships is to be able to stop in about three to four boat lengths. Remember for a carrier that is about a half a mile to 3/4 mile. The main propulsion turbines are steam that have both the ahead and astern stages on the same shaft. It takes a throttlemen (guy in the engineroom who controls steam to the propulsion turbines based on orders from the bridge) about 30-45 seconds to close the ahead throttles from top speed and open the astern throttles to maximum design steam flow. The amount of actual steam depends on many factors which don't really matter. A carrier traveling say 40 knots goes 4000 yards in 3 minutes or about a 1000 yards in 45 seconds. The screws actually slow and reverse pretty quickly. I have been in between the maine engines on a sub (around 65000 shaft hp) from max ahead to astern. The torque on the shaft is in the millions of foot pounds. Things shake and make noises like you can't believe. But still believe it or not they can all stop pretty fast for their size.

Not only is that 68mph correct but I also read that the reactors onboard can maintain that speed 24hours a day for 10 years

Yeah, I would think that the only thing more exciting than getting passed by one of these monsters, or jumping its wake...would be to see the splash of a 5-inch shell off your port side, warning you to get the hell away... :eek:

"There's nothing more exhilarating than being shot at without result." - Winston Churchill