The United States possesses 12 aircraft carriers and it serves as the most efficient means for quickly transporting thousands of troops and dozens of warplanes to any hotspot in the world. An aircraft carriers cost about $4.5 billion each. Nearly all US aircraft carriers still in service today have been built at the Northrop Grumman Newport News naval in Newport News, Virginia.

Like most ships, aircraft carriers are manufactured in dry docks which are then flooded, allowing the finished ship to float out. Aircraft carriers are constructed from modular components called super lifts: that weigh between 70 and 800 tons (equal to 100 elephants + 2 whales). An aircraft carrier will typically be built out of approx 200 super lifts. Super lifts are lowered into place with a gigantic bridge crane (it weight around more than 800 tons) and around 165 pieces are used to make one carrier. It is like putting pieces of jigsaw puzzle together while making an aircraft carrier. Each piece has already electricity fitting and ready to use at the time of fitting. USS George Washington, which is one of the best aircraft carriers of US, was made at Newport, Virginia (US) and it took an average of 7 years to make one aircraft carrier. An aircraft carrier is an example of excellent engineering.

It stands 20 stories above the water and stretching 1,092 feet (333 meters) from bow to stern (about as long as the 77-story tall), the sheer bulk of these ships is awe-inspiring. But the really amazing thing about a super carrier isn’t its size.

The USS George Washington, one of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered super aircraft carriers.

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A Carriers can move in excess of 35 knots (40 mph, 64 kph), which gives them the ability to get anywhere in the ocean in a few weeks. The United States currently has six carrier groups stationed around the world, ready to move into action at a moment’s notice.

How a Plane Lands on an Aircraft Carrier

An aircraft carrier is capable of landing a plane after one another in just 45 seconds; Landing of plane on Carrier has a different methodology, which works in totally different from landing a plane on land. A plane uses its break while landing on land to get it stopped but when a plane lands on an aircraft carrier instead of applying breaks it pulls the speed so as to take a flight if it misses to stick in one of catapult. This whole methodology is called as “control crash technology”.

An F-18 hornet flies at 250 km per hour and he has to take a flight on 150 meter long airstrip so it is very difficult for a plane to take a flight on a short airstrip, Again a different technology is used to enable planes to take a flight from ship. It uses a catapult, which helps plane to gain speed to take a flight and this technology is called “waste bubble” catapult. In this technology the catapult pipes are filled with steam and once plane is knotted with this catapult then the steam is released and piston works at high speed to push plane to take a flight.

While landing a plane, it has to stick its hook in at least one of the four wires, which pulls it and stops it down. It takes 18 seconds for a 200 ton plane to stop on a 500 feet airstrip.

While landing a plane three steps are basically followed:

1. Line up – First step is to bring the plane altitude in the middle of air strip.
2. Angel of attack – Setting angel correctly so as for safe landing on air strip.
3. Meet Ball – this is very important step as there are signal lights on the plane, which tells the status of landing so it is always needed to keep an eye on the ball for correct signal.