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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with text Stuff from dot com.

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Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to text Stuff. If I sound tired,

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Speaker 1: it's because I'm recording this intro at the end of

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Speaker 1: an incredible marathon recording session where I have kidnapped, I mean,

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Speaker 1: invited Scott Benjamin of car Stuff to join me and

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Speaker 1: talk about aircraft carriers. I'm back. Yeah, part two. It's

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Speaker 1: almost like you've never left. It's almost like I never right, So,

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Speaker 1: so yeah, if you listen to our last episode, if

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Speaker 1: you haven't listened to our last episode, you should listen

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Speaker 1: to that one first, because that's where we really cover

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Speaker 1: the basics of aircraft carriers. And this episode we're going

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Speaker 1: to look more at the various types of aircraft carriers,

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Speaker 1: sort of the how the history of aircraft carriers in

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Speaker 1: the United States has unfolded. Yeah. Yeah, the class system,

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Speaker 1: so the way that they're all designated and the way

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Speaker 1: that they the way that the whole evolution of the

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Speaker 1: aircraft carriers coming about here in the United States. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: especially you know when you get into World War two

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Speaker 1: and you and you see how it becomes a pivotal

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Speaker 1: UH part of the Navy during World War two and

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Speaker 1: then changes again just a few years later as jet

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Speaker 1: fighters become a reality. It's really fascinating stuff. So I

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Speaker 1: hope you enjoy. Now you want to talk about a

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Speaker 1: few numbers here, because let's let's please we can do

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Speaker 1: these numbers and in our articles as big numbers, and

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Speaker 1: these are big numbers, and some of these will pertain

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Speaker 1: to what we were just talking about. Others are just

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Speaker 1: kind of coming out of nowhere. But um, okay, this

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Speaker 1: is talking about the Nimitz class aircraft carrier. So that's

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Speaker 1: the current aircraft carrier that is being used by the

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Speaker 1: United States Navy that will be eventually replaced by the

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Speaker 1: Ford class once that comes online. All right, So the

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Speaker 1: total height from keel to mast is two and forty

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Speaker 1: four feet. That's as high as the twenty four story building.

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Speaker 1: As we mentioned earlier in the podcast. The weight in

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Speaker 1: full combat mode seven thousand tons. That's that's a lot

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Speaker 1: of that, sure is. And I'll go through these quickly

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Speaker 1: so we can just get through them. But the weight

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Speaker 1: of the structural steal alone sixty thousand tons just in

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Speaker 1: steel on that ship. That's not including all the all

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Speaker 1: the aircraft and the people and all the other stuff.

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Speaker 1: The total area of the flight deck. I think we

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Speaker 1: said this already four and a half acres. The length

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Speaker 1: of the flight deck one thousand, ninety two ft. But again,

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Speaker 1: they don't get to use all of that. Some of

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Speaker 1: it's for launching, some of it's for recovery. Uh it's

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Speaker 1: it's broken up into different ways, some of it's for storage.

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Speaker 1: The width of the flight deck and it's the widest

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Speaker 1: point two fifty seven ft wide, which sounds wide, but

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Speaker 1: then again, you've got planes, you've got people, you've got

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Speaker 1: the pilot house, pilotouse, that the island island, that's right,

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Speaker 1: pilot house wherey come up with that? It sounds like

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Speaker 1: a restaurant. Well you you would technically call it that

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Speaker 1: on a boat, but this is significantly larger than a boat.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna go down to the pilot house for some shrimp. Okay,

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Speaker 1: uh oh, this is interesting. The weight of each anchor,

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Speaker 1: each anchor thirty tons, and in each each link in

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Speaker 1: the section of anchor chain weighs three hundred and sixty

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Speaker 1: pounds massive a couple of people just to lift the look.

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Speaker 1: Each propeller weighs sixty six thousand, two hundred pounds. Each

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Speaker 1: of the rudders weighs four sorry, forty five point five tons. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's amazing. Um, all right, how about the storage capacity

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Speaker 1: for aviation fuel, which we would assume would be essential

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Speaker 1: for something like this Because they're not making power from

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Speaker 1: the the the reactor for the planes, they still have

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Speaker 1: to carry fuel for the actual point three point three

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Speaker 1: million gallons is what they carry? That sure is. I

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Speaker 1: mean think about that next time you go to the

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Speaker 1: Georgia Aquarium and you've got that one million gallon tank. Okay,

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Speaker 1: number of telephones on board, we're getting into some of

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Speaker 1: the funner stuff. Um, funner, more fun, the most fun,

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Speaker 1: the most fun stuff. It's the bestest stuff that's coming up. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The number of telephones on board twenty five hundred telephones.

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Speaker 1: The number of televisions on board three thousand. What are

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Speaker 1: they doing watching TV? They got a lot of They

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Speaker 1: got a ship to run. You are occasionally allowed a

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Speaker 1: little downtime and amazing. Maybe I'm being harsh, I don't know. Anyways,

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Speaker 1: you'd be quite the quartermaster. Thousands a thousand miles of

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Speaker 1: electrical cable is on board when each one of these ships. Um,

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Speaker 1: let's see, let's go down to some of the other stuff. Um,

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Speaker 1: number of dentists on board five ye five dentists, So yeah,

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Speaker 1: you gotta have that if you have thousands of people

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Speaker 1: actually do have dental offices. They aboard, they carry enough

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Speaker 1: food to feed six thousand people for seventy days. That's

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Speaker 1: a lot of that's that's eighteen thousand meals a day. Yes,

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Speaker 1: that's right, because you're multiplied by three eighteen thousand meals

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Speaker 1: and yeah, you're right, that's exactly right. So the amount

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Speaker 1: of mail that's processes on board from you know, from

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Speaker 1: the post office, one million pounds of mail goes to

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Speaker 1: all these people throughout the throughout the year. Um, let's

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Speaker 1: a number of medical doctors on board. This is actually

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Speaker 1: surprisingly low six six considering yeah that you're that's like

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Speaker 1: one per thousand. That's that's a pretty low about just

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Speaker 1: two more to wrap it up here. The number of

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Speaker 1: haircuts that they that they give every week dred a week.

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Speaker 1: But there's only one barber shop, so that that that dramatic.

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Speaker 1: To be fair, come on, haircut aboard a navy vessel

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Speaker 1: often or involves a pair of electric clippers and not

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Speaker 1: much else. Yeah, that list wasn't as fun as I thought.

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Speaker 1: It was no, no, no. But but another another one

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Speaker 1: to think about is that you've got about people who

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Speaker 1: are part of the air wing aboard the vessel. Now

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Speaker 1: the air wing that's all the people necessary for the

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Speaker 1: flying and main main maintaining of aircraft. So it's not

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Speaker 1: just the pilots, it's also the crew that that the

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Speaker 1: flight cruise, the maintenance cruise, that sort of thing. Then

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Speaker 1: you've got another three thousand who are the ship's company.

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Speaker 1: They're the ones who keep the ship running and have

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Speaker 1: their own jobs aboard there, including people who are super secret,

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Speaker 1: like the people who maintain the nuclear reactors, who even

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Speaker 1: aboard ships end up being almost legendary because you don't

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Speaker 1: necessarily know who it is who works on that duty.

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Speaker 1: That it's not always something that is common knowledge aboard ship.

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Speaker 1: There's a there's an amazing and truly amazing ten hour

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Speaker 1: documentary series that PBS did called Carrier, where they follow

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Speaker 1: a bunch of sailors aboard the U s S. Nimits,

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Speaker 1: the the lead ship of the Nimitz class aircraft carrier,

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Speaker 1: and they talk about their roles aboard the ship, their

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Speaker 1: decisions of going into the Navy, what it's like living

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Speaker 1: aboard this kind of thing. It follows a deployment during

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Speaker 1: the wars in Afghanistan, and so it actually follows these

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Speaker 1: people for a really long time and it's fascinating. And

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Speaker 1: one of the things they talked about is how, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever met anyone who works in

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Speaker 1: the nuclear reactor area, or if they do, they don't. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they don't say, which is kind of interesting. I like that.

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Speaker 1: I like that that secretive element to the Yeah. So

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Speaker 1: it's it's really again, it's it's a very specific kind

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Speaker 1: of world. And the the crew quarters I had referred

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Speaker 1: to the beds are referred to as racks. You have

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Speaker 1: a rack of you know, and the racks are tiny.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know if you've seen pictures or

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Speaker 1: video of it, but they there's barely enough space for

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Speaker 1: you to climb in to get into your little bed.

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Speaker 1: And they are stacked three to uh to a section,

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Speaker 1: so you've got a lower bunk of mettal bunk in

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Speaker 1: an upper bunk. All of these are, like I said,

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Speaker 1: there's just enough clearance for you to climb in essentially,

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Speaker 1: um And in fact, I watched you have a guy

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Speaker 1: getting in one for the first time, and he's like,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure I'm going to get better at this, and

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Speaker 1: this was the top one he did. He have a

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Speaker 1: bunch of like bruises on his forehead. Yeah, I had

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Speaker 1: a couple of lumps, you know here there. Uh, And

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Speaker 1: you have like a tiny locker and maybe a foot

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Speaker 1: locker to keep your belongings in otherwise, you know, and

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Speaker 1: you're just sharing this tiny space, and it might be

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Speaker 1: a lot of people sharing a relatively small amount of

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Speaker 1: living space, including a lot of people sharing one bathroom.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's well, it's no cruise ship. And you know,

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Speaker 1: even even if you do go on a cruise ship,

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Speaker 1: oftentimes you'll you'll get into your room and your realize, like,

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Speaker 1: this is a pretty small room, but you've got it

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Speaker 1: pretty plush compared to the military. It's luxury compared to

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Speaker 1: the military. So yeah, really really an amazing piece of technology.

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Speaker 1: Now I'm gonna go through a little bit more about

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Speaker 1: the the various aircraft classes that exist, the types of

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Speaker 1: aircraft carriers that have existed in the United States history,

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Speaker 1: and then I think we can conclude by talking a

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Speaker 1: little that about the the Forward class of super carrier

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Speaker 1: that is soon to be part of the United States

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Speaker 1: Navy and how it has a couple of interesting, interesting

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Speaker 1: new technological improvements. UM. That might surprise you because it's

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Speaker 1: not it's not necessarily it's not that it's bigger. It's

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Speaker 1: not that it's not bigger than the nimits really um.

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Speaker 1: And it's not that it's necessarily faster or that it's

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Speaker 1: able to carry a significantly larger UH component of aircraft.

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Speaker 1: It's more about how it's more efficient and it needs

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Speaker 1: fewer people aboard it, which is kind of cool. So,

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Speaker 1: going back to the earliest days, the first aircraft carrier

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Speaker 1: that the United States had was referred to as a

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Speaker 1: Langley class aircraft carrier. It was the U S. S. Langley.

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Speaker 1: If you hear something class, that means that the name

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Speaker 1: of the class is generally the name of the lead

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Speaker 1: ship of that class, and then other ships in that

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Speaker 1: class were built as using the first one as a

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Speaker 1: reference point, like that's the model, and then all the

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Speaker 1: other ships are going to be built based on that,

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Speaker 1: largely because manufacturing processes at this stage mean that we

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Speaker 1: can actually make copies of stuff. So there might be

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Speaker 1: a dozen Langley class ships out there. There could there

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Speaker 1: could have been Yeah, yeah, I understand. But then but

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Speaker 1: the first one was named the Langley, Yes, got it.

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Speaker 1: So in this case it's a single ship class, meaning

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Speaker 1: that there was only one ever made is a bad

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Speaker 1: example in my part, but but only because we're talking

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Speaker 1: about the very first one. Um it was. It was

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Speaker 1: a commission in nineteen twenty two as an aircraft carrier. However,

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Speaker 1: that's not how the Langley got got her start. And

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Speaker 1: of course we refer to ships as ladies. So she

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Speaker 1: had a previous life as a collier, which is a

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Speaker 1: type of bulk cargo ship. So she was converted from

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Speaker 1: cargo ship to aircraft carrier. She was originally launched as

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Speaker 1: a cargo ship in nineteen thirteen. No boy, she the

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Speaker 1: conversion process began in nineteen twenty lasted two years. She

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Speaker 1: was recommissioned in nineteen twenty two, and she on a

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Speaker 1: wooden deck, right, yeah, she was she She did not

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Speaker 1: have all the amenities of a modern aircraft carriers. She

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Speaker 1: was slow. She was only capable of traveling at fourteen knots,

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Speaker 1: which is less than half of what we're talking about

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Speaker 1: with the super carriers these days. That's a it's a

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Speaker 1: huge problem if you're only going fourteen knots because you

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Speaker 1: are not able to generate that amount of air speed

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Speaker 1: that airplanes would really need to take off. So it

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Speaker 1: was not not This is one of the reasons why

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Speaker 1: the Langley is the only one in her class. Um

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Speaker 1: or was the only one, I should say. Now, there

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Speaker 1: was a captain in the Navy who ended up taking

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Speaker 1: control of the Langley. Uh He was given her command

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Speaker 1: and ended up establishing a lot of the handling procedures

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Speaker 1: that became standard operating procedure on aircraft carriers after that.

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Speaker 1: His name was Captain Joseph Reeves. He would eventually rise

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Speaker 1: to the rank of admiral. Uh So, a lot of

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Speaker 1: the things that ended up being used every day on

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Speaker 1: aircraft carriers were that they were established because Reeves put

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Speaker 1: those practices into as policy. He said, this is the

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Speaker 1: way we're going to do things. Um Now, The Langley

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Speaker 1: was damaged by Japanese dive bombers in nineteen forty two,

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Speaker 1: and the surrounding US ships were forced to scuttle the Langley,

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Speaker 1: so she was sunk by by US forces on purpose. Next,

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Speaker 1: we have the Lexington class, named after the USS Lexington

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Speaker 1: that was commissioned in ninety seven. Uh. It was originally

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Speaker 1: a battle cruiser, not an aircraft carrier. So the first

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Speaker 1: two were not necessarily they didn't start out life as

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Speaker 1: an aircraft exactly. Uh. And there were two ships in

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Speaker 1: the Lexington class, so really the first three aircraft carriers

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Speaker 1: started as something else. Now here's the interesting thing about

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Speaker 1: why we converted. We being the United States, converted a

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Speaker 1: battle cruiser into an aircraft carrier. So you may have

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Speaker 1: heard of things like a disarmament treaties. This is not

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Speaker 1: a new concept. This does not just refer to the

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Speaker 1: nuclear age. It goes back further back in the old days,

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Speaker 1: like the nineteen twenties. The big weapons were these giant

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Speaker 1: navy ships, and so there was a treaty signed, the

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Speaker 1: Washington Naval Treaty of nineteen twenty two, which placed strict

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Speaker 1: limitations on how many warships a nation would be allowed

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Speaker 1: by international law to have. If the United States built

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Speaker 1: to battle cruisers are actually, I'm sorry, battleships, they weren't

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Speaker 1: even they weren't battle cruisers. No, they were battle cruisers.

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Speaker 1: So they built two battle cruisers, they would go over

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Speaker 1: their limit. However, aircraft carriers at the time were not

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Speaker 1: considered really warships. They were considered support. So instead of

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Speaker 1: building battle cruiser, they just took the bones of the

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Speaker 1: battle cruisers and converted them into aircraft carriers. Yeah. So

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Speaker 1: this was still in the construction phase. It wasn't like

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Speaker 1: they they had them out and sailing and then converted them.

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Speaker 1: It was all all from the uh at the shipyards. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The lead ship of the class, the Lexington, was sunk

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Speaker 1: in nineteen forty two during the Battle of the Coral

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Speaker 1: Sea that Scott mentioned. The other was the Saratoga, which

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Speaker 1: made it through World War Two. She was heavily damaged

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Speaker 1: in a couple of different battles, but she made it through,

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Speaker 1: and she was later sunk on purpose during a test

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Speaker 1: of nuclear weapons. Yeah. Yeah, this is interesting. Huh. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's when you start, you decide, Hey, we're just gonna

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Speaker 1: we're gonna park this here boat right off the bikini

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Speaker 1: and then we're gonna blow it up. Yeah, but you

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Speaker 1: know what, how else are you going to test that?

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Speaker 1: How else are you going to figure out how that

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Speaker 1: ship is going to stand up to an attack like that?

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Speaker 1: As it turns out, it doesn't, but it certainly proved

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Speaker 1: it in that case. Yeah, so very interesting fate for

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Speaker 1: those two. Then you have the Ranger class, another single

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Speaker 1: ship class of ships. So in other words, it's almost

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Speaker 1: funny to call it a class when there's only one,

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Speaker 1: but that's what we do. So she was the commission

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Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty four and deep commission in ninety s.

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Speaker 1: And this is the first ship that was built to

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Speaker 1: be an aircraft carrier. Um. She was only seven thirty

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Speaker 1: feet long or two two point five meters. I say

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Speaker 1: only because that's much shorter than today's super carriers, had

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Speaker 1: a full crew complement of two thousand, four hundred sixty

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Speaker 1: one people. And uh, she was in the Atlantic Ocean

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Speaker 1: during World War Two because she was too slow to

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Speaker 1: be deemed useful for the Pacific theater. And now you

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Speaker 1: said seven thirty ft but that was probably sufficient for

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Speaker 1: prop aircraft. Oh yeah, yeah. And and again she was

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Speaker 1: built specifically with aircraft carrier in mind, so this was

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Speaker 1: not a conversion. So she was, you know, designed with

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Speaker 1: those those elements in mind. At that point, all we're

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Speaker 1: still talking about kind of the straight uh landing takeoff

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Speaker 1: strip that caused so many problems early on. Next we

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Speaker 1: have the York Town class, which was commissioned in nineteen

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Speaker 1: thirty seven. There were three ships built in this class.

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Speaker 1: Of course, the lead ship is the York Town Um.

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Speaker 1: She was sunk in nineteen forty two at the Battle

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Speaker 1: of Midway, So when we talk about Midway classes, guess

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Speaker 1: what that's named after. Anyway. The Hornet was another York

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Speaker 1: Town class ship. She was sunk also in nineteen forty

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Speaker 1: two at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. The

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Speaker 1: third ship was the original U S S Enterprise, the

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Speaker 1: original well original in the sense of aircraft carriers. Um.

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Speaker 1: Now you know what, I don't think until this morning

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Speaker 1: when you were talking about I don't think I knew

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Speaker 1: that there were two USS Enterprises. Yeah, yeah, so this

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Speaker 1: one is This one was a York Town class ship.

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Speaker 1: There would later be an Enterprise class ship also known

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Speaker 1: as the USS Enterprise. So if you guys have been

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Speaker 1: watching a lot of Star Trek and you get confused

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Speaker 1: about which enterprises which, because there's Enterprise you know, a B, C, D,

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Speaker 1: and then of course there's the previous ones. Uh that

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Speaker 1: dates back all the way to the Navy days, I mean,

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Speaker 1: and of course they named the Enterprise after this particular ship.

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Speaker 1: This was the most decorated ship in US Navy history.

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Speaker 1: It's on the bottom of the ocean. Well you can't,

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Speaker 1: you know, and no one lives forever going through this list.

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Speaker 1: I mean, man, there's a bunch of them down there.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, Well she she actually was. She made

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Speaker 1: it through. She was not sunk the way the York

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Speaker 1: Town and the Hornet were. That's something. She was seven

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Speaker 1: seventy feet long or two ys and had a complement

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Speaker 1: of two thousand, two hundred seventeen crew. Next we get

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Speaker 1: to the Wasp class. It's another single ship class. Only

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Speaker 1: one ever made. Uh. She was commissioned in nineteen forty

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Speaker 1: but sunk in nineteen forty two during the Guadalcanal Campaign,

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Speaker 1: aim by a Japanese submarine. She was si eight ft

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Speaker 1: long or two or ten and she carried a crew

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Speaker 1: of two thousand, one hundred sixty seven during wartime or

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Speaker 1: around eighteen hundred during peacetime. Now, her construction came down

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Speaker 1: to politics. This was one of the things I thought

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Speaker 1: was fascinating. So you remember that treaty image. In the treaty,

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Speaker 1: it limited the amount of tonnage. The United States was

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Speaker 1: able to dedicate two aircraft carriers, but they had fifteen

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Speaker 1: thousand ton tonnage left over after everything else, and they said, well,

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Speaker 1: we don't want that to go to waste. Let's build

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Speaker 1: an aircraft carrier that will make up this tonnage that

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Speaker 1: we have been allotted. And the Wasp was that ship.

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Speaker 1: That's strange because okay, you're talking, you're talking about a

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Speaker 1: fifteen thousand ton aircraft carrier, yeah, compared to like the

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Speaker 1: thirty thousand plus sixty thousand Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean it's it seems like it's so small, and how

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Speaker 1: it's got a wasp that yeah, yeah, and she only

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Speaker 1: lasted two years before she was sunk. Let's take a

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Speaker 1: into one of the like what was the backbone in

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Speaker 1: the United States Navy during World War Two. That's the

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Speaker 1: Essex class of aircraft carriers, commission in nineteen forty two.

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Speaker 1: There was also an extended bowl variation. The bow is

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Speaker 1: the front end of the ship. There was an extended

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Speaker 1: bow variation that was commissioned in nineteen four. There were

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Speaker 1: twenty four ships built in the Essex class. There were

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Speaker 1: another eight that had been planned but were canceled before

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Speaker 1: they could be built. Uh So this was the most

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Speaker 1: plentiful of them. Out of those twenty four, fourteens saw

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Speaker 1: combat during World War Two. Not a single one was sunk.

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Speaker 1: That's impressive. So all of them made it through World

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Speaker 1: War two. Uh. They range because there's an extended vol version.

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Speaker 1: They range from about a hundred twenty feet, which is

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Speaker 1: almost two to eight feet, which is about two D seventy.

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Speaker 1: You know, that kind of makes sense though, because we

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Speaker 1: were talking about the role reversal and how you know

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Speaker 1: that became the primary player. Then the aircraft carrier was

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Speaker 1: during World War Two, so they when they went out,

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Speaker 1: you know, these fourteen ships that went out and saw it,

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Speaker 1: saw action. They were surrounded by support ships and they

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Speaker 1: were protecting them fiercely. That's probably the difference. That's probably

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Speaker 1: why all four teen made it through that. I mean,

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Speaker 1: clearly the biggest danger you you face there. I mean,

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Speaker 1: there are plenty of dangerous lots of them, but the

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Speaker 1: biggest one would be submarines because those would be the

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Speaker 1: hardest to detect. Now, a lot of the aircraft carriers,

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Speaker 1: in fact, all aircraft carriers to my knowledge, have anti

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Speaker 1: submarine um UH strategies where they deploy what is essentially

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Speaker 1: a decoy that makes a lot of noise, so a

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Speaker 1: submarine ends up focusing on that. Torpedoes go towards that

403
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Speaker 1: as opposed to going to the actual aircraft carrier, so

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Speaker 1: you don't want to make a lot of noise. Then

405
00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:17,520
Speaker 1: you have independence class commission in this was another conversion.

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Speaker 1: These were light aircraft carriers. They were conversions of Cleveland

407
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Speaker 1: class light cruisers. So if you look at the list

408
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Speaker 1: of Independence class ships, you'll see that they have multiple

409
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Speaker 1: names because they had already had a life as a

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Speaker 1: light cruiser, but now had been converted into aircraft carrier,

411
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Speaker 1: and they got named a new name in that case. Yeah,

412
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Speaker 1: that's weird because sailors generally think that it's bad luck

413
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Speaker 1: to rename a ship points called it something. But I

414
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Speaker 1: guess that was technically a different ship by then. Anyway,

415
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Speaker 1: cruisers are small to medium sized warships. They usually act

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Speaker 1: as fleet support and World War Two, you the United

417
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Speaker 1: States had need of a lot more aircraft carriers, but

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Speaker 1: they are expensive they take a lot of time to make,

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Speaker 1: so there weren't a whole lot of options. The best

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Speaker 1: option was to convert stuff that they already had into

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Speaker 1: aircraft carriers rather than have to build new ones. Makes sense, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it makes sense, um, So nine ships were converted ultimately

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Speaker 1: in this way. Now, next we have the Midway class,

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Speaker 1: which was commissioned in nine There were three of these.

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Speaker 1: They were longer than the Essex class. The leadership of

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Speaker 1: the class. The Midway remained in service until nineteen two

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Speaker 1: to nine two not a bad not a bad return

428
00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:43,600
Speaker 1: on investment is a surprisingly long run. Yeah. I mean,

429
00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:46,080
Speaker 1: if you look at the aircraft that the United States

430
00:24:46,119 --> 00:24:49,280
Speaker 1: has depended upon, some of those aircraft have been in

431
00:24:49,359 --> 00:24:52,520
Speaker 1: service for a really long time. But this is this

432
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:55,920
Speaker 1: is truly, you know, impressive to me. And they might

433
00:24:55,960 --> 00:25:00,320
Speaker 1: have changed a little bit between ninety probably got a

434
00:25:00,359 --> 00:25:04,679
Speaker 1: couple of refits where they changed changed up, you know

435
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:08,880
Speaker 1: where Hey, you finally got the compass to stop wobbling. Um. Yeah,

436
00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:14,000
Speaker 1: So the last action that the Midway saw was an

437
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:18,480
Speaker 1: Operation Desert Storm. She took took part in that, and then, uh,

438
00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:21,680
Speaker 1: she is now a museum in San Diego, California, which

439
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:26,240
Speaker 1: is where I got to with several of these. Yeah,

440
00:25:26,359 --> 00:25:28,879
Speaker 1: a lot of these aircraft carriers are a lot and

441
00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:31,199
Speaker 1: I'm not mentioning all of them by name, because obviously

442
00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:33,760
Speaker 1: that would We're gonna be running super long if I

443
00:25:33,800 --> 00:25:36,639
Speaker 1: did that. But a lot of them are now museums

444
00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:40,560
Speaker 1: in various locations. Some of them are in the process

445
00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:44,120
Speaker 1: of being converted into museums for some places. Um, it's

446
00:25:44,119 --> 00:25:47,440
Speaker 1: a great use for them. Yeah, it's really it's fascinating

447
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:49,880
Speaker 1: to really get an actual look at what the living

448
00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:53,080
Speaker 1: conditions are like. To see these racks and see how

449
00:25:53,119 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 1: tiny those bunks are, and just think, like anyone who

450
00:25:56,080 --> 00:25:59,080
Speaker 1: hasn't served time on board a ship, uh you know,

451
00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:01,880
Speaker 1: I had had had any service aboard a ship like that.

452
00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:05,320
Speaker 1: It really kind of gives you a new appreciation for

453
00:26:05,359 --> 00:26:09,080
Speaker 1: the sacrifice that the men and women who choose to

454
00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:13,120
Speaker 1: do that. You know what they go through, no doubt. Um. Next,

455
00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:16,200
Speaker 1: we've got the Saipan class, which was commissioned in nineteen

456
00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:18,640
Speaker 1: forty six. There were only two ships built in that class.

457
00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:23,480
Speaker 1: They were shorter four point six ft long two eight

458
00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:26,359
Speaker 1: meters or so, and they carried a complement of seventeen hundred.

459
00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:29,680
Speaker 1: They were designed to carry forty two aircraft, including twelve bombers.

460
00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:33,879
Speaker 1: They had a relatively short service life because, uh well

461
00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:36,520
Speaker 1: they just weren't as useful once we started getting the

462
00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:40,080
Speaker 1: development of the jet engine planes right, they were far

463
00:26:40,119 --> 00:26:43,000
Speaker 1: too short for that. So they were converted into command

464
00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:46,760
Speaker 1: and communication ships in the nineteen fifties. Um, so that

465
00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:49,199
Speaker 1: meant that we needed to have a new class of

466
00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:55,280
Speaker 1: ship designed specifically to accommodate jet fighters. And here we

467
00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:58,680
Speaker 1: arrive it's like the modern era. Yeah, this is where

468
00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:00,800
Speaker 1: we're making that that you know, we're still not quite

469
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:04,480
Speaker 1: the nuclear era, but we're at the super carrier era.

470
00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:07,280
Speaker 1: This is where we arrive at the aircraft carrier that

471
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:12,000
Speaker 1: wasn't the big one that that started but wasn't completed,

472
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:16,159
Speaker 1: the United States class the USS United States didn't. They

473
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:19,439
Speaker 1: only work on the beginning production of this thing for

474
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:21,359
Speaker 1: just a few days before it was canceled. They had

475
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:26,280
Speaker 1: laid the keel down. Depending upon the the account you read,

476
00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:29,040
Speaker 1: it's between five and nine days. Like the keel was

477
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:32,679
Speaker 1: laid out, and within within a week or so it

478
00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:36,359
Speaker 1: was canceled. And uh, it was supposed to be a

479
00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:40,399
Speaker 1: ship that would be one thousand ninety ft long or so.

480
00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:42,520
Speaker 1: This would have been the longest aircraft carrier up to

481
00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:45,439
Speaker 1: that point. Um she was supposed to be able to

482
00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:50,000
Speaker 1: carry twelve to eighteen heavy bombers and fifty four jet fighters.

483
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:54,240
Speaker 1: Now she was canceled by order of the Secretary of Defense,

484
00:27:54,359 --> 00:27:58,679
Speaker 1: Lewis A. Johnson, who sided with the Air Force in

485
00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:01,080
Speaker 1: an argument that was going on between the Air Force

486
00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:05,240
Speaker 1: and the Navy. The Air Force said, listen, we're in

487
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:09,760
Speaker 1: the nuclear age, and the best investment is for us

488
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:13,560
Speaker 1: to build lots and lots of long range bombers that

489
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:16,959
Speaker 1: can fly out over a target drop a nuclear weapon.

490
00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:19,199
Speaker 1: This is going to be to terrence, will never have

491
00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:23,040
Speaker 1: a war again. And Johnson said, this is the way

492
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:25,720
Speaker 1: I want to go, and it led to what was

493
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:29,359
Speaker 1: called the Revolt of the Admirals. So you had these

494
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:32,199
Speaker 1: admirals in the Navy who all said, no, aircraft carriers

495
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:34,240
Speaker 1: are going to still be important. We're going to need

496
00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:38,360
Speaker 1: a place that we can, uh we can maneuver into

497
00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 1: different parts of the world and use as a base

498
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:45,960
Speaker 1: of operations for our our air strategy. Yeah. So you

499
00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:48,400
Speaker 1: had the Navy arguing that we still needed to have

500
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:50,880
Speaker 1: aircraft carriers and the Air Force arguing that no, we

501
00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:56,480
Speaker 1: did not. Then a little conflict broke out, the Korean War,

502
00:28:57,400 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 1: and the Korean War illustrated the nuclear deterrence would not

503
00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:07,000
Speaker 1: work in every kind of outbreak of violence, and the

504
00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:10,800
Speaker 1: United States believed that it had a real stake in

505
00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:14,120
Speaker 1: the outcome of the Korean War. Uh A, fear of

506
00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:16,360
Speaker 1: the spread of communism was a large part of this.

507
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:19,360
Speaker 1: It was all happening as the Cold War is raging,

508
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:24,000
Speaker 1: and the Navy said, see, we need aircraft carriers, and

509
00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:28,320
Speaker 1: so back to building aircraft carriers. The Navy went now something,

510
00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:30,520
Speaker 1: I mean the research and development I don't know how

511
00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:32,800
Speaker 1: long that took before, you know, prior to to the

512
00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 1: start of the build, but to get nine or ten

513
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:38,640
Speaker 1: days or five days or whatever into the build and

514
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:43,480
Speaker 1: then just decided to quit, that's remarkable. Yeah, yeah, exactly

515
00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:46,800
Speaker 1: what waste. Yeah, I mean, it's we're talking like a

516
00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:49,720
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars at that point. Then we get the

517
00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:53,240
Speaker 1: Forestal class. This is the one that had the famous fire,

518
00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:57,000
Speaker 1: the USS forest All that was commissioned in nineteen fifty five.

519
00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 1: There were four of them built um and it was

520
00:29:59,720 --> 00:30:04,320
Speaker 1: the first sexual aircraft carriers to be designated as super carriers.

521
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:07,720
Speaker 1: All four were decommissioned in the nineteen nineties and they

522
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:11,480
Speaker 1: were one thousand seventy ft long, about three and they

523
00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:15,480
Speaker 1: still used steam turbines for propulsion like they steam boilers.

524
00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:18,800
Speaker 1: They didn't have nuclear reactors yet. The crew compliment for

525
00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:23,320
Speaker 1: that was four thousand three. So we're getting bigger. Someone

526
00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:27,640
Speaker 1: down there shoveling colon Yeah, a lot of them. Actually, Yeah,

527
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:29,959
Speaker 1: you know, throw another log on the fire. We need

528
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,360
Speaker 1: to go a little faster what they're doing. More steam,

529
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:35,920
Speaker 1: more steam, next, we had the Kittie Hawk class now

530
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:39,880
Speaker 1: Kitty Hawk obviously named after the test flights that the

531
00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:43,760
Speaker 1: Wright brothers did at Kitty Hawk. UH. That was commission

532
00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:46,360
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty one. There were three ships built in

533
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:52,360
Speaker 1: that class, the Kittie Hawk, the Constellation, and the America. UH.

534
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:55,320
Speaker 1: And they also used steam turbines. Then we get to

535
00:30:55,360 --> 00:31:00,960
Speaker 1: the Enterprise class and the next USS Enterprise commissioned on

536
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:07,520
Speaker 1: November nineteen six and UH, the USS Enterprise is the

537
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:10,160
Speaker 1: only ship in this class there they've never built any

538
00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:13,520
Speaker 1: other ones. UH. It was one thousand, one hundred one

539
00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:17,320
Speaker 1: ft long or one thousand hundred feet two inches long

540
00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:22,040
Speaker 1: three hundred thirty five point six four um. Its flight

541
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 1: deck was two d fifty two ft wide or seventy

542
00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:28,040
Speaker 1: five point six meters. It displaced eighty nine thousand, six

543
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:30,840
Speaker 1: hundred tons with a full load. Top speed was more

544
00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:33,760
Speaker 1: than thirty knots. Had more than three thousand, three hundred

545
00:31:33,760 --> 00:31:36,800
Speaker 1: fifty members of the ship's company and another two thousand,

546
00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:39,120
Speaker 1: four hundred eighty as the air wing crew. They had

547
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:43,160
Speaker 1: a total of five thousand, eight hundred thirty people aboard

548
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:48,160
Speaker 1: this thing. That's crew, huge crew. UH. It's armament included

549
00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:52,080
Speaker 1: anti ship missile defense systems and anti aircraft weapons, and

550
00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:55,520
Speaker 1: it could hold more than sixty aircraft. Uh. And it's

551
00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:59,800
Speaker 1: to be decommissioned this year this year, so this is

552
00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:01,240
Speaker 1: one that is probably going to end up being a

553
00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:03,840
Speaker 1: museum someplace, I would hope. So, yeah, and I hope

554
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:08,480
Speaker 1: that they hang up pictures from Star Trek everywhere. Next,

555
00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:12,480
Speaker 1: we have the Kennedy class. Uh. This is a subclass

556
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:14,560
Speaker 1: of the Kittie Hawk class of aircraft carriers. It was

557
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:18,000
Speaker 1: commissioned in There's only one of them, or there was

558
00:32:18,040 --> 00:32:20,880
Speaker 1: only one of them, the John F. Kennedy, and it

559
00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:24,080
Speaker 1: was decommissioned in two thousand seven. Not quite as long

560
00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:27,479
Speaker 1: as the Enterprise class, but they had a similar propulsion system,

561
00:32:28,080 --> 00:32:30,719
Speaker 1: which means, you know, the Enterprise being one that was

562
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:34,760
Speaker 1: the first one to have nuclear reactors for propulsion. The

563
00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:38,040
Speaker 1: Kennedy class also had it, so unlike the Kittie Hawk class,

564
00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:40,120
Speaker 1: this is why it's a subclass, right, it didn't have

565
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:44,640
Speaker 1: the steam boilers like Kitty Hawk did. It had nuclear reactors,

566
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:49,720
Speaker 1: so that's why it's considered a subclass. Unto itself, it

567
00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:53,000
Speaker 1: could carry more than eighty aircraft, but it was decommissioned

568
00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:55,800
Speaker 1: because it was also the most expensive ship to maintain

569
00:32:55,840 --> 00:32:58,440
Speaker 1: in the fleet, and it was due for a major overhaul,

570
00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:00,680
Speaker 1: and budget cuts said that that was gonna happen, so

571
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:06,120
Speaker 1: they decommissioned it. Yeah, So instead they built the Nimitz class,

572
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 1: and this is what we're using today, the largest warship

573
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:11,480
Speaker 1: on the seas right now. It's named after World War

574
00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:15,440
Speaker 1: Two Pacific Lee Commander Chester W. Nimitz, and the Nimitz

575
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:20,640
Speaker 1: class was commissioned on May third, nineteen seventy, just a

576
00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:24,600
Speaker 1: short time before I was nineteen seventy five. And we've

577
00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:26,840
Speaker 1: gone all the way through to two thousand and fifteen

578
00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:31,040
Speaker 1: or sixteen really before we come to the next version

579
00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:36,480
Speaker 1: of class Et class of super carrier, which is there

580
00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:41,160
Speaker 1: for class Yeah, so she's been in this class of ships,

581
00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:43,880
Speaker 1: has been in service for for more than four decades.

582
00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:47,680
Speaker 1: That's a long time. The Navy has ten Nimitz class

583
00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:50,920
Speaker 1: aircraft carriers. They are one thousand, ninety two ft long,

584
00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:54,520
Speaker 1: three thirty two point eight five and one aren't thirty

585
00:33:54,520 --> 00:33:58,000
Speaker 1: four at the beam that's four meters. That's a that's

586
00:33:58,000 --> 00:33:59,920
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the ship. So here's the thing.

587
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:01,760
Speaker 1: The other thing about aircraft carriers is they kind of

588
00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:03,360
Speaker 1: had this thing where they're narrow at the bottom and

589
00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:05,880
Speaker 1: they kind of flare out with wise at the top.

590
00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:07,640
Speaker 1: And obviously you need to have a lot of surface

591
00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:11,160
Speaker 1: area for your flight deck. That's another element of them.

592
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:14,440
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting. I mean we've got ten super carriers.

593
00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:18,040
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool. Yeah, no, it is really cool. Um,

594
00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:21,560
Speaker 1: the ship's company is between three thousand and thirty two

595
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:25,080
Speaker 1: hundred uh crew members plus fifteen hundred pilots and crew

596
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:28,120
Speaker 1: for the air wing, plus five hundred staff. So your

597
00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:30,600
Speaker 1: total is between five thousand and five thousand, two hundred

598
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:35,280
Speaker 1: people per super carrier. So it's a lot of folks

599
00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:37,440
Speaker 1: on there. That is I mean, the logistics of of

600
00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:40,080
Speaker 1: maintaining everything that you have to do. I mean we've

601
00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:42,800
Speaker 1: i know we've talked about it, but even the mail service,

602
00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:47,680
Speaker 1: the sewage system, uh, fresh food or fresh food and water, um,

603
00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:50,560
Speaker 1: you know, all of this stuff. I mean, the barbershop,

604
00:34:50,680 --> 00:34:55,040
Speaker 1: the dentist, the doctor is all that coordinating everything has

605
00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:58,879
Speaker 1: just got to be an incredible undertake. Yeah, I mean

606
00:34:58,920 --> 00:35:01,440
Speaker 1: that's that's why you have to have this huge number

607
00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:03,439
Speaker 1: of staff aboard. I Mean you sit there and think

608
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:05,680
Speaker 1: like what are they doing. While they're doing they're making

609
00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:08,919
Speaker 1: sure everything runs smoothly. They have to. Yeah, I mean

610
00:35:09,080 --> 00:35:11,960
Speaker 1: it's a military operation and everybody is there for a

611
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:14,520
Speaker 1: specific purpose. That's the other thing is that there's six

612
00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:17,759
Speaker 1: thousand people on board, roughly six thousands that have a

613
00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:20,480
Speaker 1: specific job that they're doing. It's not like a cruise

614
00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:22,680
Speaker 1: ship where you go on and you know, more than

615
00:35:22,719 --> 00:35:24,520
Speaker 1: half the people are there just to have a good time,

616
00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:26,919
Speaker 1: you know and relax. The other half are there to work.

617
00:35:27,160 --> 00:35:28,759
Speaker 1: You're not gonna find a lot of people having a

618
00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:31,160
Speaker 1: good time aboard and aircraft carrier. Well, yeah, maybe they

619
00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:33,920
Speaker 1: are only I get a little little like basketball in

620
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:36,840
Speaker 1: or something occasionally. Yeah. Sure, But but the thing is

621
00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:38,839
Speaker 1: they've all got a job, I mean, every single one

622
00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:41,120
Speaker 1: of them. So it's it's it's just a different way

623
00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:43,200
Speaker 1: to look at things. Yeah, and um and you might

624
00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:45,040
Speaker 1: you know, we haven't talked a lot about the defense

625
00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:49,000
Speaker 1: systems aboard aircraft carriers, largely because their main their main

626
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:52,880
Speaker 1: weapon are the aircraft, right, but they do have various

627
00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:57,280
Speaker 1: uh defense systems aboard them with the limits. You're talking

628
00:35:57,320 --> 00:36:00,960
Speaker 1: about CE Sparrow missile system, which is an anti aircraft

629
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:04,279
Speaker 1: and anti missile weapon. It also has the Phalanx c

630
00:36:04,640 --> 00:36:08,400
Speaker 1: I WS defense system to protect against anti ship missiles.

631
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:13,160
Speaker 1: It's essentially an automated twenty millimeter gabbling gun that tracks

632
00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:18,520
Speaker 1: and shoots down incoming missiles. Yeah, that's Watching videos of

633
00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:22,880
Speaker 1: this thing working is terrifying. Also. Yeah, and also these

634
00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:26,920
Speaker 1: serviced air missiles that use radar seeking UH signals to

635
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:29,320
Speaker 1: phone in on whatever they're bouncing the signals off of.

636
00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:31,920
Speaker 1: So that is another cool thing to watch. I mean

637
00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:35,440
Speaker 1: to watch the watch the missiles reaching their target based

638
00:36:35,440 --> 00:36:39,040
Speaker 1: on radar. And they also have a rolling airframe missile

639
00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:42,400
Speaker 1: mounts which can launch surface to air missiles, which is

640
00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:45,879
Speaker 1: another anti ship cruise missile defense system. So in other words,

641
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:48,440
Speaker 1: if an incoming missiles coming toward the aircraft carrier, you

642
00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:51,600
Speaker 1: can launch one of these to try and UH and

643
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:53,680
Speaker 1: and destroy the missile before it hits. And then you

644
00:36:53,719 --> 00:36:56,560
Speaker 1: already talked about the things that they call the nixies, right, Yeah,

645
00:36:57,280 --> 00:36:59,959
Speaker 1: that's the for the anti submarine. Yeah, what a cool

646
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:03,919
Speaker 1: idea that they deploy decoys behind the ship in order

647
00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:07,319
Speaker 1: to draw in the torpedo file. Very cool. I think

648
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:10,080
Speaker 1: of it kind of like flak for aircraft, where you're

649
00:37:10,080 --> 00:37:15,000
Speaker 1: trying to make sure by by by jettison, jettison ng uh,

650
00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:18,719
Speaker 1: lots of stuff that a missile could mistake for the

651
00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:21,799
Speaker 1: aircraft that you can escape without being being hit by

652
00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:25,400
Speaker 1: the weapon. Clever. So now we're finally at what is

653
00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:28,200
Speaker 1: coming up next. So the Nimitz class is the current

654
00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:31,960
Speaker 1: aircraft carrier the United States Navy depends upon. The next

655
00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:35,439
Speaker 1: is the Ford class. As we mentioned, it's the same

656
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:37,880
Speaker 1: length more or is you know, essentially the same size

657
00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:40,400
Speaker 1: as the Nimitz class, but it has a wider flight deck. Uh,

658
00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:42,640
Speaker 1: it's four ft wider. It's got two or fifty six

659
00:37:42,680 --> 00:37:46,120
Speaker 1: ft wide or seventy eight, and has two nuclear reactors

660
00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:49,240
Speaker 1: to provide the propulsion power and electricity. Has same general

661
00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:51,360
Speaker 1: top speed as the limits more or less. Again the

662
00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:57,160
Speaker 1: Navy doesn't really want to show, UH. But the systems

663
00:37:57,160 --> 00:38:00,200
Speaker 1: aboard the Ford require fewer personnel. So the total crew

664
00:38:00,200 --> 00:38:03,360
Speaker 1: of a Ford class ship, remember limits is five thousand

665
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:07,000
Speaker 1: to five thousand, two hundred Ford class four thousand, five

666
00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:09,920
Speaker 1: thirty nine. How did they cut the crew down? It's

667
00:38:10,080 --> 00:38:13,680
Speaker 1: it's incredible that they have streamlined system so that it

668
00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:17,680
Speaker 1: requires fewer people to maintain and oversee. UH. And it

669
00:38:17,719 --> 00:38:20,240
Speaker 1: can also hold more aircraft than the Nimits class vessel,

670
00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:24,440
Speaker 1: more than seventy five of them. Similar armament to nmits um,

671
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:27,480
Speaker 1: and it has some advance and aircraft launches. Uh and

672
00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:29,799
Speaker 1: one particular that we need to mention. This is how

673
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:32,240
Speaker 1: we're going to conclude. We're gonna talk about the difference.

674
00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:35,040
Speaker 1: So we had talked about the steam catapults earlier. Yeah,

675
00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:39,040
Speaker 1: then the the Ford class is changing. We're finally getting

676
00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:44,080
Speaker 1: away from these steam powered pistons that launch aircraft. They're

677
00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:48,560
Speaker 1: switching to an electro magnetic aircraft launch system also known

678
00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:52,160
Speaker 1: as EMLS. This idea, it's a really cool idea. I

679
00:38:52,160 --> 00:38:55,360
Speaker 1: gotta say that, you know. My first my initial thought

680
00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:57,000
Speaker 1: of this was are they going to be able to

681
00:38:57,000 --> 00:38:58,560
Speaker 1: shorten the decks? Are they're gonna be able to make

682
00:38:58,560 --> 00:39:01,319
Speaker 1: smaller aircraft carriers? But but then I thought, well, they

683
00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:03,640
Speaker 1: still need to store the Aircraft's still gonna need a

684
00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:07,520
Speaker 1: massive ship. M It's not gonna get dramatically smaller. But

685
00:39:07,560 --> 00:39:09,600
Speaker 1: they might be able to shorten the length of the

686
00:39:10,120 --> 00:39:15,040
Speaker 1: takeoff area, or they might be able to provide more runways,

687
00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:18,279
Speaker 1: more takeoff areas, because there's some that have as many

688
00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:21,840
Speaker 1: as they can launch three or four airplanes. Actually, you

689
00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:23,560
Speaker 1: know what, the most I've ever seen launched at one

690
00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:27,160
Speaker 1: time is three simultaneously. But yeah, you could have like

691
00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:31,239
Speaker 1: four or five catapult areas. Yes, and the emaals ones

692
00:39:31,320 --> 00:39:34,520
Speaker 1: can reset much faster than the steam ones. Within forty

693
00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:37,440
Speaker 1: five seconds they can reset to be able to launch

694
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:40,760
Speaker 1: another aircraft. Now, it's probably gonna take longer than forty

695
00:39:40,760 --> 00:39:43,960
Speaker 1: five seconds for you to get the next aircraft hooked

696
00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:46,400
Speaker 1: up and ready to go, but that's how long the

697
00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:51,240
Speaker 1: system requires before it can launch again. So it's very fast.

698
00:39:52,040 --> 00:39:54,200
Speaker 1: There's some downsides. I'll get to it in the second

699
00:39:54,239 --> 00:39:57,480
Speaker 1: but the general way this works is that it works

700
00:39:57,480 --> 00:40:02,000
Speaker 1: on the basic principles of magnetism, right where uh like,

701
00:40:02,760 --> 00:40:06,879
Speaker 1: polls on the magnet repel and opposite poles attract. So

702
00:40:07,880 --> 00:40:10,480
Speaker 1: remember that shuttle we talked about with the steam powered one,

703
00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:13,440
Speaker 1: same sort of thing. You've got a shuttle there, and

704
00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:16,120
Speaker 1: you have a leading edge the front side of the shuttle,

705
00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:18,239
Speaker 1: the part that the toebar is going to connect to,

706
00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:20,880
Speaker 1: and then you have the back edge of the shuttle,

707
00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:24,160
Speaker 1: and you've got these two rails that are on either

708
00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:27,239
Speaker 1: side of the shuttle, just like the pistons would be

709
00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:29,759
Speaker 1: on the steam powered one, but instead of using steam,

710
00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:34,719
Speaker 1: you're using electricity to generate magnetic fields, and you are

711
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:40,000
Speaker 1: pulling the shuttle in the front. You're creating an opposite charge,

712
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:42,319
Speaker 1: so it attracts the front of the shuttle as it

713
00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:44,960
Speaker 1: starts to you know, it wants to move toward that

714
00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:47,080
Speaker 1: opposite and it's going to slam into the other end.

715
00:40:47,400 --> 00:40:50,759
Speaker 1: And then you use the same charge on the back

716
00:40:50,880 --> 00:40:53,040
Speaker 1: to push the shells, So you're pulling and pushing it

717
00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:56,640
Speaker 1: at the same time. And by changing by fluctuating this

718
00:40:56,680 --> 00:41:00,600
Speaker 1: magnetic field at a particular speed down the length of

719
00:41:00,680 --> 00:41:06,360
Speaker 1: these rails, you propel the shuttle very very quickly down

720
00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:11,200
Speaker 1: the rails. Now, the power of that push is dependent

721
00:41:11,239 --> 00:41:13,920
Speaker 1: on a couple of different things. The length of the rails,

722
00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:16,560
Speaker 1: which in this case are about three feet in length,

723
00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:20,600
Speaker 1: and the amount of current you're putting through. It means

724
00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:22,919
Speaker 1: you've gotta put a lot of current. We're talking about

725
00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:26,879
Speaker 1: a lot of electricity, a huge amount. We're talking one

726
00:41:26,960 --> 00:41:31,919
Speaker 1: hundred million watts per launch, which you sound like dr

727
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:36,920
Speaker 1: e one hundred million what's doing the pinky thing? Just

728
00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:40,600
Speaker 1: in case you guys can't see. Also, that's the same

729
00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:43,239
Speaker 1: amount of electricity a small town would use in that

730
00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:46,120
Speaker 1: same amount of time. So every time your launch you're

731
00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:50,719
Speaker 1: using within that forty five seconds of of launch and recovery,

732
00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:53,760
Speaker 1: you're using essentially the same amount of electricity a town

733
00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:57,799
Speaker 1: would use in that Yeah, who cares, because you've got

734
00:41:57,800 --> 00:42:01,280
Speaker 1: a nuclear reactor, your create in it yourself. You're using

735
00:42:01,360 --> 00:42:03,520
Speaker 1: what you create. It's not like you're you're taking it

736
00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:05,520
Speaker 1: from somebody else to use it. Yeah, they don't have

737
00:42:05,560 --> 00:42:08,600
Speaker 1: an extension cord leading all or I don't mean to

738
00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:10,520
Speaker 1: trivialize it right now what I mean, but I mean

739
00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:13,120
Speaker 1: it's interesting and I wonder how many Okay, I wonder

740
00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:16,400
Speaker 1: what safety aspects this brings out? Our safety concerns This

741
00:42:16,520 --> 00:42:18,880
Speaker 1: brings up for crew members working on the deck well,

742
00:42:18,920 --> 00:42:21,000
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of crew members that each have

743
00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:22,480
Speaker 1: their own job and they're you know, they got their

744
00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:24,839
Speaker 1: head down doing what they're supposed to be doing. There's

745
00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:27,919
Speaker 1: gonna be brand new procedures for this, no doubt. Sure. Yeah,

746
00:42:28,200 --> 00:42:31,800
Speaker 1: it's it requires a smaller crew than the steam powered

747
00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:34,640
Speaker 1: version does. But obviously that crew does need to be

748
00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:37,360
Speaker 1: alert because if you're in the wrong place at the

749
00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:40,799
Speaker 1: wrong time, I mean, when those jet engines. Uh, fire up.

750
00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:43,600
Speaker 1: I read. I read a story about a guy aboard

751
00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:48,600
Speaker 1: an aircraft carrier who got sucked into the intake, but

752
00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:52,000
Speaker 1: did not get sucked into the actual jet engine itself.

753
00:42:52,040 --> 00:42:57,000
Speaker 1: He suffered injuries, but they were not not critical injuries

754
00:42:57,480 --> 00:43:00,280
Speaker 1: because he didn't get pulled all the way into the engine.

755
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:03,359
Speaker 1: He was just stuck in a terribly uncomfortable position right

756
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:06,840
Speaker 1: at the very entrance of it. But that's a real concern,

757
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:08,600
Speaker 1: you know, And that's going to be a concern whether

758
00:43:08,719 --> 00:43:11,640
Speaker 1: it's a steam powered one or electromagnetic because because again,

759
00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:14,040
Speaker 1: the pilot is still going to have to power up

760
00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:17,160
Speaker 1: full throttle so that they can take off properly. Okay,

761
00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:18,839
Speaker 1: I was getting. I was getting more to the point of,

762
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:20,799
Speaker 1: you know, somebody whose job it is to to hook

763
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:24,640
Speaker 1: up the shuttle to the to the landing gear, and

764
00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:27,680
Speaker 1: if they mistakenly touch you know, I don't touch the

765
00:43:27,719 --> 00:43:29,400
Speaker 1: metal on the plane and the metal on the on

766
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:31,520
Speaker 1: the deck here at the same time. Um I can

767
00:43:31,560 --> 00:43:34,200
Speaker 1: I understand. But there's also there's also huge dangers with

768
00:43:34,239 --> 00:43:37,359
Speaker 1: the steam powered Yeah. Well, I mean you're talking about

769
00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:40,520
Speaker 1: a massive amount of steam under huge pressure. Something's going

770
00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:42,239
Speaker 1: to throw a plane off of a ship. I mean,

771
00:43:42,239 --> 00:43:44,520
Speaker 1: it's gonna be it's gonna be dangerous no matter what. Right,

772
00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:47,520
Speaker 1: So this has been one of those things that some

773
00:43:47,560 --> 00:43:50,400
Speaker 1: people have claimed has held up the development of the

774
00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:54,920
Speaker 1: Ford Supercarrier because obviously, like we're saying, you need to

775
00:43:54,920 --> 00:43:56,759
Speaker 1: make sure the system is going to work, it's going

776
00:43:56,800 --> 00:44:00,160
Speaker 1: to replace something that already exists. So there's some who

777
00:44:00,160 --> 00:44:02,160
Speaker 1: would argue, well, why are you replacing something that has

778
00:44:02,200 --> 00:44:04,919
Speaker 1: been proven to work, And the answer is that, well,

779
00:44:04,960 --> 00:44:08,680
Speaker 1: this system could potentially take up much less space. You

780
00:44:08,719 --> 00:44:10,400
Speaker 1: still have to have a massive mouth space just for

781
00:44:10,480 --> 00:44:13,400
Speaker 1: the power generator to send the electricity to the rails,

782
00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:16,080
Speaker 1: but it's still going to be smaller than the steam

783
00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:18,680
Speaker 1: uh pistons that you would be using at least directly

784
00:44:18,760 --> 00:44:22,200
Speaker 1: under the deck um and uh you know, it uses

785
00:44:22,480 --> 00:44:24,600
Speaker 1: again a smaller cruise so you don't need to have

786
00:44:24,640 --> 00:44:27,680
Speaker 1: as many people a border aircraft carrier. Military is gonna

787
00:44:27,719 --> 00:44:31,359
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, so uh, you know, not the most

788
00:44:31,360 --> 00:44:37,000
Speaker 1: electrically uh the efficient device maybe, but still really fascinating. Yeah,

789
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:40,040
Speaker 1: maybe I should clarify that military budget people are gonna

790
00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:42,440
Speaker 1: but the but the thing is, I still wonder I

791
00:44:42,440 --> 00:44:44,520
Speaker 1: wonder if it's going to be any faster than the

792
00:44:44,560 --> 00:44:46,840
Speaker 1: steam system, or if it's going to be more capable

793
00:44:47,160 --> 00:44:49,279
Speaker 1: than the steam system. As far as you know, the

794
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:52,480
Speaker 1: launch distance, the launch time, because we said that it

795
00:44:52,520 --> 00:44:54,600
Speaker 1: launches a plane in like in two seconds and it's

796
00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:57,880
Speaker 1: going a hundred and sixty five when it at the

797
00:44:57,960 --> 00:45:00,319
Speaker 1: end of that of that travel, well, I mean it

798
00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:04,440
Speaker 1: is the difference between changing the electric current along the

799
00:45:04,520 --> 00:45:09,520
Speaker 1: rail versus the mechanical action of a piston being pushed forward.

800
00:45:09,640 --> 00:45:14,879
Speaker 1: So I guess you're going you're going on and instantly, Yeah,

801
00:45:16,800 --> 00:45:20,800
Speaker 1: and then your acceleration could be even faster. I would imagine,

802
00:45:21,160 --> 00:45:24,080
Speaker 1: I mean I I also imagined that, they said it.

803
00:45:24,160 --> 00:45:26,920
Speaker 1: So it's not that because obviously we don't want to

804
00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:33,920
Speaker 1: cause injury to the pilot or damage the vehicle. But yeah,

805
00:45:34,160 --> 00:45:37,799
Speaker 1: a that that sort of speed. So uh, this was

806
00:45:38,200 --> 00:45:40,640
Speaker 1: really a lot of fun to talk about. And um,

807
00:45:40,960 --> 00:45:42,759
Speaker 1: you know, when we first started, I wasn't sure if

808
00:45:42,760 --> 00:45:44,359
Speaker 1: we were going to get two episodes out of it,

809
00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:47,319
Speaker 1: but we sure did. Yeah, yeah, we did, I can

810
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:50,080
Speaker 1: tell already. So here here's another peak behind the curtain

811
00:45:50,160 --> 00:45:53,080
Speaker 1: for you new listeners out there. Sometimes we don't know

812
00:45:53,800 --> 00:45:55,319
Speaker 1: how long an episode is going to be and we

813
00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:59,040
Speaker 1: don't know how um you know, you know whether or

814
00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:01,920
Speaker 1: not something's gonna be one part or two parts. And

815
00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:03,680
Speaker 1: the funny thing is you've already listened to part one

816
00:46:03,760 --> 00:46:05,719
Speaker 1: and this is the end of part two. But we

817
00:46:05,760 --> 00:46:07,080
Speaker 1: didn't know what was going to be in the part

818
00:46:07,080 --> 00:46:09,799
Speaker 1: two until I looked down at Scott's timing device and

819
00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:11,640
Speaker 1: saw that we're well over an hour and a half.

820
00:46:11,719 --> 00:46:14,520
Speaker 1: If we wanted to release this as one episode, you

821
00:46:14,560 --> 00:46:17,720
Speaker 1: were giving them all the secrets, I know, right well,

822
00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:21,080
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, we just had tech Stuff seven episode,

823
00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:22,920
Speaker 1: so I feel like I feel like we've had a

824
00:46:22,920 --> 00:46:26,399
Speaker 1: few moments, me and the listeners probably, so Scott, thank

825
00:46:26,440 --> 00:46:28,400
Speaker 1: you so much for joining me for these two episodes.

826
00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:30,640
Speaker 1: Are really appreciated, you know it. Once again, I had

827
00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:32,479
Speaker 1: a lot of fun talking about this. You know way

828
00:46:32,520 --> 00:46:35,680
Speaker 1: more about aircraft carriers than I do, obviously, but I

829
00:46:35,719 --> 00:46:37,680
Speaker 1: had a great time and it's always a good conversation.

830
00:46:37,760 --> 00:46:40,200
Speaker 1: So thank you for inviting me, and I'd gladly do

831
00:46:40,239 --> 00:46:43,680
Speaker 1: it again. Fantastic And next time, I swear I'll pick

832
00:46:43,719 --> 00:46:46,720
Speaker 1: something car related. Now, maybe next time we'll talk about

833
00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:51,280
Speaker 1: the Coast to coast driverless car test that's about to happen.

834
00:46:51,360 --> 00:46:54,959
Speaker 1: We're recording this the week just before that weekend where

835
00:46:55,040 --> 00:46:57,320
Speaker 1: that's gonna start, and there's gonna be a coast to

836
00:46:57,400 --> 00:47:03,120
Speaker 1: coast test of a an Audi vehicle from San Francisco

837
00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:06,280
Speaker 1: to New York. So maybe we'll after that's over, whether

838
00:47:06,320 --> 00:47:08,919
Speaker 1: it succeeds or fails, you and I can sit down

839
00:47:08,920 --> 00:47:10,759
Speaker 1: and talk about what happens. Let's see what happens. That

840
00:47:10,760 --> 00:47:14,200
Speaker 1: sounds good, well, guys. If you want to hear more

841
00:47:14,320 --> 00:47:16,960
Speaker 1: of Scott's work, you need to go check out Car Stuff.

842
00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:21,160
Speaker 1: It's a great series, the fantastic You've got the Car

843
00:47:21,239 --> 00:47:24,160
Speaker 1: Stuff website that has the videos as well as the

844
00:47:24,200 --> 00:47:27,480
Speaker 1: podcasts on it. Need to go check that out. Scott again,

845
00:47:27,520 --> 00:47:31,360
Speaker 1: thank you so much, listeners. If you have suggestions for

846
00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:34,360
Speaker 1: future topics you want to have me cover on tech Stuff,

847
00:47:34,600 --> 00:47:36,840
Speaker 1: send me a message and let me know. I'm tired

848
00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:40,960
Speaker 1: of guessing. Guys are tough. My email addresses tech Stuff

849
00:47:41,040 --> 00:47:42,920
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com, or drop me a

850
00:47:42,960 --> 00:47:46,799
Speaker 1: line on Facebook, Twitter or Tumbler. The handle at all

851
00:47:46,840 --> 00:47:49,200
Speaker 1: three is tech Stuff hs W and we'll talk to

852
00:47:49,239 --> 00:47:56,520
Speaker 1: you again really soon for more on this and thousands

853
00:47:56,560 --> 00:48:05,960
Speaker 1: of other topics works dot com Change