Posted on 10/07/2009 7:16:55 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Italy's newest aircraft carrier like a son-captain
By Jo Winterbottom
LA SPEZIA, Italy (Reuters Life!) - Italy's newest aircraft carrier is a pretty big baby. But the Cavour's captain sees his ship as exactly that: a son growing up before his eyes.
"I saw the ship growing day by day. So I feel it's like a son," Captain Gianluigi Reversi told Reuters in a recent interview aboard the 27,500 tonne ship.
The Cavour is docked at La Spezia while it undergoes maintenance following a year of tests, before it goes into full service probably some time in 2010.
Reversi became captain in 2005, when the ship started to be built, and will hand over to a successor next year.
"I have followed each step and I know every part, all the hidden angles," he said. He also had the 545 strong crew to train on the new ship.
"I will give the captain who follows me not only a body but a body with a heart and a brain," Reversi said.
Last week, that body was flexing its muscles to move journalists on board for the launch of Fiat's Punto Evo model.
The press conference was raised en bloc from the hangar to the 220 meter (yards) long runway deck by the massive lifting platform that normally hoists aircraft or helicopters.
The Punto Evos then showed off their turning circles on the deck, which is 34 meters wide, and came to a halt facing journalists with headlights on under a star-struck sky.
Dinner in a marquee pitched on the deck was followed by an overnight stay in one of the carrier's cabins, which usually sleep four crew but hosted just one reporter each.
The slimmed down staffing -- Italy's only other aircraft carrier, the 30-year-old Garibaldi, has up to 800
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
mini-carrier?
and to think, we once ruled the world.
and to think, we once ruled the world.
The Italians built a carrier and the Chinese are still trying to figure it out?!?!?!? That is pathetic.
But I hope the carrier isn’t like those Fiats.
Impressive! Wonder when the U.S. Navy will realize that usper Stennis class carriers no longer needed in the changing world of UAVs and jump jets that eventually hit MACH 4 speeds.
27,500 tons displacement. Nimitz class: 98,000 tons.
how come everybody elses carriers have that launch deck curving up and us carriers dont? whats up with that?
Well, this is just a Harrier-carrier, no catapults and no high speed landings.
That sort of thing seems to be much easier to design and operate.
The Chinese want the real thing for high performance aircraft.
Oh please, loan it to Israel......
In terms of capabilities European carriers are toys, built more to assuage national prestige than to project power. In World War II this would have been a Jeep Carrier.
That French carrier, remember, was too short for the E-2C’s to take off, The windows on the bridge couldn’t be seen through...
Remember what happened to the French carrier during sea trials?
The washing machines nearly tore the ship apart.
All of that for double the price and time it should have taken.
The US Navy sees that ramp like its for children or something.
Maybe because the deck is so close to the water it needs a ramp?
Because they're limited to launching small, slow V/STOL aircraft without catapults, while we can launch and recover (simultaneously) big, supersonic, high performance aircraft with steam (or soon electric) catapults.
IOW, we don't need those dorky launch ramps.
We could slice a couple of Nimitz Class ships in half I guess. lol.
In the United States, we commission capitol warships under the prefix “USS” which stands for “United States Ship”.
In Great Britain warships use “HMS” for Her Majesty’s Ship”.
In Italy they use “AMB” for “Atsa My Boat”...
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