You're right. It is. Sometimes the eye sees what it wants to see.

HMS QE recently pioneered rolling landings with the F35. This allows higher payloads, etc. which greatly increased the strike capacity. According to a BBC story last week, the HMS QE is also currently operating more F35s than any other carrier. When they get the Prince of Wales operational, the RN will have some serious capabilities.

I tease them occasionally, but God bless our friends the Brits. May their might remain awesome and their course true.

Any ideas on why they split the island into two parts? I wonder what the reason is for that.

quote:

Originally posted by JoseyWales2:
Any ideas on why they split the island into two parts? I wonder what the reason is for that.

The forward island handles ship ops, while the aft island handles air ops.
RN studied a variety of configurations, and found the single large island like what we see on US amphibs creates a large amount of cross wind over the deck, think Venturi effect. US carriers have a single island rearward, air ops likes this but, ship ops doesn't....US carriers are under the control of NAVAIR, thus NAVAIR dictates design.

Secondarily, below both islands, is the ships turbines. As a way to reduce the amount of intake/exhaust duct work and piping of a conventionally powered ship, the turbines were moved above the waterline. The space savings increased the amount of fuel and magazine capacity, thus allowing the QE's to realistically maintain a high cyclic rate over a greater period of time, and not have to deal with the high cost and political issues of nuclear; nuclear powered ships remove all the ductwork entirely. The downside is a main piece of engineering, is above the waterline, a design feature that is a major gamble in damage control which is also verboten in the USN.

Some more detail and pics
https://www.savetheroyalnavy.o...eth-has-two-islands/

quote:

Originally posted by alreadydead:
At 14 sec in that video to the left of the helicopter, tell me what that is? Drone?

This guy?

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
Here's where it shows how little I know about military aircraft: What's the "open flap" on top of the airplane early in the video?