Aircraft carriers are also called “mobile fortresses.” The huge ship is like a steel behemoth, giving people a strong sense of oppression.
As the sea base of the air force, do you know how thick the deck of the mobile fortress is? How complicated is its manufacturing process? After reading it, you will know why the aircraft carrier is so powerful.
Aircraft carrier deck
The original idea of the aircraft carrier was to transform into a warship. The buildings on the top of the battleship were demolished, leaving a spacious docking place.
When more and more aircraft are manufactured, ordinary warships are obviously not enough, and people urgently need a mobile sea ship specially used for aircraft replenishment.
Battleship After unremitting efforts, people finally developed a modern aircraft carrier. Later, with the advancement of science and technology, the manufacture of aircraft carriers also continued to improve. Today, it is already a symbol of national strength.
The large deck is the biggest difference between an aircraft carrier and other warships. The original intention of people to invent the aircraft carrier is to allow the deck to carry aircraft.
The deck withstands the brunt of hundreds of aircraft dockings every day and also holds its shape through wind and rain.
Modern aircraft Carrier
The high temperature generated by the friction of the aircraft, the pressure resistance in the face of enemy attack, the design of different deck areas, the ability to deal with severe weather, and other factors have made the deck manufacturing process very difficult. At present, only three countries in the world have the core manufacturing technology for aircraft carrier decks.
Deck Building Difficulty
The most difficult part of deck manufacturing lies in its materials. Ordinary materials cannot withstand high-strength impacts at all.
Deck materials are very particular.
The yield strength of the aircraft carrier deck must reach more than 850MPa to supply the aircraft’s normal work stably.
Of course, it is not impossible to use inferior materials. For example, the deck of the British “Queen Elizabeth” aircraft carrier is not up to standard, and a lot of maintenance costs are spent on the deck every year.
Normally, maintenance costs are relatively high and may look the same as a standard aircraft carrier. In actual combat, this type of aircraft carrier cannot withstand the enemy’s attack at all. Once the power system is damaged, the aircraft carrier becomes a fixed target.
HMS Elizabeth
A standard aircraft carrier deck can withstand enemy bombing for over 20 days. It’s such a powerful deck. It’s hard to believe it’s only 40 to 50mm thick!
And the unevenness of the deck shall not exceed 5 mm per meter. In fact, according to this standard, at least the human eye cannot observe the unevenness of the deck. It can only be measured with precision instruments.
All technologies are designed to ensure that the thickness and hardness of the deck can be within an appropriate range so that the aircraft can dock normally. A strong magnetic field will be generated if the deck is too thick, interfering with the surrounding instruments’ normal operation.
Carrier decks are not flat.
The deck manufacturing technology that China successfully broke through in 2013 uses a variety of materials to synthesize the deck so that the yield strength of the deck can reach more than 800MPa. It is also resistant to heat and friction when dealing with aircraft take-off.
You must know that the run-up distance of the aircraft on land is more than a few kilometers, while the aircraft on the deck of the aircraft carrier reaches the take-off state but only a few hundred meters; when the ejection device operates, it explodes at an alarming speed in an instant.
The take-off speed of the aircraft on the deck has also been further improved with the advancement of technology, and the earlier steam injection has gradually been eliminated with the development of the times.
The steam ejection force is too strong, it is easy to tear it into pieces when the drone is flying, and the steam ejection utilization rate is low; only about 8% of the steam is used for injection.
Later, people invented the electromagnetic ejection device according to the electromagnetic principle. Compared with steam ejection, electromagnetic ejection devices can control force better, and the technical requirements for personnel control are also reduced.
The only disadvantage is power consumption, but the aircraft carrier itself has a power plant, which is just a drop in the bucket for an aircraft carrier.
Electromagnetic ejection is used. In addition to the booster, the fuel injector at the aircraft’s tail must also be opened to maximum firepower. It can be turned into molten iron in an instant. The deck of an aircraft carrier can withstand the high temperature of countless aircraft, which shows the particularity of its materials.
The deck is 180 to 340 meters long and 22 to 77 meters wide. According to the three types of aircraft carriers, small, medium, and large, the deck area increases sequentially. Compared with the area of the international football stadium, which is 105 times that of 68 meters, you can intuitively feel the size of the aircraft carrier deck itself.
The aircraft carrier deck area is huge.
However, such a large-area aircraft carrier requires as few splicing manufacturing processes as possible on the deck to ensure the pressure resistance of the aircraft carrier deck.
When manufacturing the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong, steel developers specially developed a large-scale steel plate-making machine to ensure that the aircraft carrier could be spliced in single digits.
Aircraft carrier deck area division
The aircraft carrier deck is divided into several areas: take-off, waiting, and landing. Although the overall structure of the aircraft carrier deck looks the same, there will be subtle differences in different areas.
The take-off and landing area is in the take-off area. In order to distinguish the flight section and the landing section, the width of the flight deck increases sequentially.
In the 1950s, the aircraft carrier deck area was not so clearly divided. After many missions, it was found that the aircraft was prone to collisions and other problems during take-off and landing.
At this time, a generally proposed tilt of the aircraft carrier’s deck to the sides by about 8°. The inclined deck is the take-off and landing area, the straightforward deck is the take-off area, and the intersection is the parking area.
Early landing of the plane may affect.
With a clear division, the aircraft’s flight is no longer affected by “companions” and “companions.” This design allows multiple aircraft to take off at the same time. There is an elevator unit around the corner from the deck. The function of this elevator is to lower the aircraft parked on the deck below the deck to avoid danger when dealing with enemy bombing.
The number of elevators is about 2. Considering the convenience of the elevator, the design here is the weakest part of the aircraft carrier.
And the area where the elevator is located is close to the ammunition depot. Once the elevator falls, the consequences will be extremely serious. Later, someone put the elevator unit on the flank of the carrier, which effectively solved this problem.
Powerful aircraft carrier
As the saying goes, strength comes from strength. A carrier has a much wider deck area than the hull itself. The hull itself is well protected. When the enemy’s ammunition falls, the deck can effectively receive the enemy’s ammunition, ensuring that the hull itself is not damaged.
The enemy cannot passively attack the aircraft carrier System. The material of the command room is the same as that of the deck, both of which are above 850MPa. Not only can it withstand firebombing, but it also has a powerful means of counterattack. The aircraft carrier is worthy of being an important representative of national strength.
Some people may be curious that such a huge warship must consume a lot of energy. What is the power source of the aircraft carrier? Do not burn the pot. Aircraft carrier missiles There are two main sources of power for aircraft carriers worldwide: steam power and nuclear power.
Steam power is the most commonly used power system for aircraft carriers. After all, not everyone has the technology to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Once a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier leaks, the consequences will be disastrous.
The steam power system on an aircraft carrier is equivalent to using a medium-sized electric heating device to generate electricity, using a mixture of fuel and gas to generate electricity.
Energy generated by nuclear reactors powers nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The advantage of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is that it has a sufficient power supply and does not require much fuel as support. The energy produced by nuclear reactions is inexhaustible and inexhaustible.
U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier
The US Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier uses nuclear power. The energy produced by nuclear reactors is quite objective, which is equivalent to the electricity consumption of a small and medium-sized city.
Of course, the premise of everything is technology. If the technology is not up to standard, it will be difficult to maintain the long-term operation of nuclear power. In the future, more technologies will be applied to the aircraft carrier, and this “behemoth” at sea will also become more powerful.
