A few minutes ago I was minding my own business sitting in "my Boeing 737" returning home after a day on Maui.

As we were about to reach the Honolulu airport we flew right over this-


It had a deck full of aircraft and very few support ships, just a few tugs on each side some 300 feet away.

Hard not to spot (I was looking for humpback whales but they are now long gone) at 1092 feet on the deck and 77,600 tons. Hey did you know it can travel 1.5 million nautical miles at 20 knots using it's two nuclear reactors?

Read more here-
http://www.reagan.navy.mil/home/current_stories/01.htm
http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/76.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimitz_...rcraft_carrier

In pearl harbor next to the Arizona memorial in January 2005


Wonder what I'll be flying over next, better not fall asleep and miss the excitement.

 

minihune, I thought you flew over some more parts when I read the title.

 

That's the Reagan? I thought the Kennedy was supposed to be in port. That thing is HUGE!

 

Yup, #76. I saw the number clearly from the plane at a few thousand feet above the flight deck. (not directly over).

"USS RONALD REAGAN, At sea – The Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group, comprised of USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), Commander, Carrier Strike Group (CCSG) 7, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 14, USS Lake Champlain (CG 57) and Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 7, pulled into Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, April 9 for a scheduled port visit on the return leg of its 2007 surge deployment in support of operations in the Western Pacific."

More pics-

SOUTH CHINA SEA (Apr. 5, 2007) - The hangar bay of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) fills with bombs, missiles, and small arms ammunition as aviation ordnancemen and deck department work to prepare for an ammunition offload.

 

Don't have a pic, but I flew over the Luxor hotel in Vegas as it was getting dark. The huge light on top of it was realy cool.

 

Take just one of those F-18's (Navy guys, correct this Air Force Guy if I've mistaken the jets on the carrier) and it's awesome firepower. Multiply that by the number of jets seen on the deck of that carrier. Multiply that carrier by the total number of aircraft carriers in the Navy fleets. And then realize that the Air Force has even more air power than the Navy. And then throw on top of that the air and land weapons we have in our Army and Marine Corp.

How in the hell do we ever NOT totally anihialate our enemies ?

That's a political discussion not allowed on this board (rightfully so). So you can consider that a rhetorical question.

 

They are F-18's cause the 18's tail section V's like a F-22. The F-14's are vertical like a F-15.

 

Here it is up close-

Pacific Ocean (Aug. 17, 2005) - An F/A-18C Hornet, assigned to the "Golden Dragons" of Strike Fighter Squadron One Nine Two (VFA-192), launches from the flight deck of the conventionally powered aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63).

Neat stuff-

U.S. Navy F/A-18 at transonic speed. The cloud is due to the Prandtl-Glauert singularity.
see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prandtl...rt_singularity

 

Real men fly single engine

 

I was watching Discovery Channel with a special show on the F/A-18 and the navy likes twin engines for safety. Flying over water and over less than friendly areas means no unscheduled stops would be high on the list of things to do.

Those engines are pretty reliable and the aircraft is not too old compared to some others that require much more mechanic attention for each flight hour.

Does this mean that real men drive 8 cylinder engines?

How about 200+HP 4 cylinder engines?:impatient

 

If your down here towards HIA you could see the single engine pigs that I work on...lol. What is it...something like 27K #'s of thrust. And don't get me started on maintenance per flying hour. Hawaii has treated us good though. But on a norm I would have to say it's like 12 maint hours per 2 hours of flying time....