[Eye of Unk]

With four nuclear reactors the Big E was faster. A close friend who is a nuke specialist in the underwater boat department told me the Enterprise has a classified emergency flank speed of 75 knts.

[DuncanWaring]

If he told you and you then posted it here it’s not very well classified, is it?

[tanknetter]

With four nuclear reactors the Big E was faster. A close friend who is a nuke specialist in the underwater boat department told me the Enterprise has a classified emergency flank speed of 75 knts.

The Enterprise actually has eight reactors, not four. Since she was, in hull form, a modification of the Kitty Hawk design (actually with a better length to width ratio) she has a higher top speed than either the conventional CVs or the later CVNs.

But 75 knots is science fiction. Even the best engineering can't overcome the laws of physics. Enterprise's best top speed - and that's fresh out of overhaul with a clean hull and props and operating in specific sea conditions and depths, gets her pretty close to 34 knots. Which still makes her the fastest deep-draft warship in the world.

A good read on all this is Stuart Slade's "Speed Thrills III". The essay was written back in the late 1990s as a response to flame wars that were taking place on many of the nascent military discussion boards over the speeds of relative classes of ships (there are other "Speed Thrills" essays on the Iowa Class Battleships that are worth reading. One goes into details about how running in shallow water conveys additional speed).

[SamAdams76]

A close friend who is a nuke specialist in the underwater boat department told me the Enterprise has a classified emergency flank speed of 75 knts.

Oh no, not another "friend of a friend who knows something" remark, designed to impress people online who have no way of validating the information.

[steve86]

told me the Enterprise has a classified emergency flank speed of 75 knts.

He's not being forthright with you. I watched out the cabin window of a 747-400 as the Enterprise caught up and passed us on the way to New Zealand. Disappeared over the horizon.

[GATOR NAVY]

A close friend who is a nuke specialist in the underwater boat department told me the Enterprise has a classified emergency flank speed of 75 knts.

Either he had no idea what he was talking about and was blowing smoke out of his ass, or he was having fun yanking your chain.