Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Contains threads on Royal Navy equipment of the past, present and future.
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SKB
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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by SKB »

Enigmatically wrote:I'd like to as it happens. Where to watch from is a question though. The obvious places will get packed
Depends on what you want to see. Going in (from outside the harbour) or coming in (from inside the harbour). There's a difference...



The best views to see the approach of QE BEFORE it enters Portsmouth Harbour is anywhere from Southsea Castle in the east, and westwards along Southsea Beach, Clarence Pier, The Long Curtain (moat defences), The Garrison Church, The Square Tower, The Hot Walls (Sallyport Beach) and up to the Round Tower.



The deep water channel (which is clearly identified by the newer larger navigation beacons) literally runs parallel just offshore to Southsea beach and has unobstructed views. After QE passes the Round Tower and through into Portsmouth Harbour, the views from there will be very limited due to the height of the surrounding buildings on both sides of the harbour.

If you're driving to Southsea Beach or Southsea Common, theres plenty of seafront car parking spaces. If you're coming by train, get off at Portsmouth & Southsea station (or Portsmouth Harbour station) and get a taxi/bus to Clarence Pier (with its tacky little funfair and the hovercraft terminal to the Isle of Wight).



I would personally give the Round Tower a miss. Yes, I know it's a traditional place to see ships come in or go out from Pompey, buts its a very small viewing area which will be packed with press and media types doing interviews, asking silly questions and no doubt will call the QE "a large boat". Plus, there's only one way up and down to the viewing platform via a very tight narrow stone staircase which rules out access to wheelchair users and the elderly. The Round Tower is 600 years old and was not really designed to accommodate large numbers of people. Once the QE has passed the Round Tower, you then won't see her again as the surrounding buildings block the view of the Harbour, so you'll have to move elsewhere if you want to see more.



The best views of QE INSIDE Portsmouth Harbour after passing the Round Tower will be from Portsmouth Point (aka 'Spice Island'), which is a very short walk from the Round Tower. It has some good traditional pubs but is awful for parking as the streets are incredibly short and narrow. This oldest part of Portsmouth is where Britain's last battleship, HMS Vanguard ran aground on its way out of the harbour to the scrapyard.



Alternatively, after the Round Tower, quickly make your way around the Camber Docks (fish market) to the dockyard 'Hard' area and go up the 180m tall Spinnaker Tower, located inside Gunwharf Quays shopping centre. Up there, you can see the entire Solent, Isle Of Wight and all of Portsmouth Harbour. Take your camera to get some unusual 'above the QE' photos instead of the usual side-on shots. Head for Portsmouth Harbour Railway Station if you don't know the area. Gunwharf Quays is literally next door to the station. Gunwharf Quays is a shopping centre that was built on the former HMS Vernon base site and still retains some of the original buildings. Has some nice shops, restaurants and a multiplex cinema too.

You could take a short Gosport Ferry trip across to Gosport (from Portsmouth Harbour railway station) to see the reverse angle of the QE against the Portsmouth skyline and naval base, instead of against the backdrop of Gosport.


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SKB
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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by SKB »

Image

Just had an idea of how to get a very close look of QE.

Buy a ticket to visit HMS Victory or Mary Rose or the Royal Navy Museum inside Portsmouth dockyard, then hang around near No.1 Basin (the smaller one in the picture above). HMS M33 is there too, its literally next to the Princess Royal Jetty (formerly Middleslip Jetty) which will have QE berthed at it.

And if that isn't near enough, go on the Portsmouth Harbour tour boat. The boat does a whole loop of the harbour.


;)

cpu121
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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by cpu121 »

First look at who will operate the carriers (video should start at 01:01:44):



;)

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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by CameronPerson »

SKB wrote: And if that isn't near enough, go on the Portsmouth Harbour tour boat. The boat does a whole loop of the harbour.
Do you reckon they'll run the harbour tour? It's a given that nothing will bring the punters while QE being alongside but could they deal with that volume of people.. if not that do you think "security measures" would stop them running the tour, after all, her arrival in Invergordon saw mods security than some would have expected.

Hopefully the tour will still be running once she's alongside but maybe the boat may have to keep its distance a bit more than they ever had to with Lusty and co. Would be a pretty amazing sight to see her towering above you like that though!

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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by CameronPerson »

** Edit**
it's a given that nothing will bring the punters as much as seeing QE alongside

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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by WhiteWhale »

I know this is a *bit* of an odd question but a discussion has popped up elsewhere and I'm struggling to find the relevant info, does anyone know the dimensions of the aircraft lifts? Especially in comparison to those used by comparative carriers, I know the 'can lift 2 F-35's at a time' bit as that seems to be the only factoid that comes up on searching. Ta.

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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

WhiteWhale wrote: Especially in comparison to those used by comparative carriers
They are the biggest. My follow-on question is: would they be able to bring up a Chinook with rotor blades ready for churning and turning? We have not placed an order for powered folding/ unfolding, and the manual one (the procedure) is not just time consuming, but in higher winds downright dangerous.
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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

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ArmChairCivvy wrote:in higher winds downright dangerous.
Normandy-2 today, Sir?
... No, it's too windy
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
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Enigmatically
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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by Enigmatically »

CameronPerson wrote:
SKB wrote: And if that isn't near enough, go on the Portsmouth Harbour tour boat. The boat does a whole loop of the harbour.
Do you reckon they'll run the harbour tour? It's a given that nothing will bring the punters while QE being alongside but could they deal with that volume of people.. if not that do you think "security measures" would stop them running the tour, after all, her arrival in Invergordon saw mods security than some would have expected.

Hopefully the tour will still be running once she's alongside but maybe the boat may have to keep its distance a bit more than they ever had to with Lusty and co. Would be a pretty amazing sight to see her towering above you like that though!
I believe all harbour traffic will be stopped when she comes in- including the harbour tour. But once she is alongside it could resume. Not sure if it actually will resume that day though

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hovematlot
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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by hovematlot »

The top deck of the Spinnaker Tower gets my vote..

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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by Gabriele »

would they be able to bring up a Chinook with rotor blades ready for churning and turning? We have not placed an order for powered folding/ unfolding, and the manual one (the procedure) is not just time consuming, but in higher winds downright dangerous.
Yes, they can take a Chinook with spread open rotor.
You might also know me as Liger30, from that great forum than MP.net was.

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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by abc123 »

ArmChairCivvy wrote:
WhiteWhale wrote: Especially in comparison to those used by comparative carriers
They are the biggest. My follow-on question is: would they be able to bring up a Chinook with rotor blades ready for churning and turning? We have not placed an order for powered folding/ unfolding, and the manual one (the procedure) is not just time consuming, but in higher winds downright dangerous.
A question, yes, it's offtopic: Does SH-60 have powered folding/unfolding?
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What's her position about heavily armed, well prepared and overmanned armies?
Oh, noone's ever heard of Fortune favoring them, sir.
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Little J
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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by Little J »

Yes it does...


...Well the MH-60 version at least ;)

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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by abc123 »

Little J wrote:Yes it does...


...Well the MH-60 version at least ;)
Probably the older versions too. Thanks. ;)
Fortune favors brave sir, said Carrot cheerfully.
What's her position about heavily armed, well prepared and overmanned armies?
Oh, noone's ever heard of Fortune favoring them, sir.
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inch
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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by inch »

How well do people think the sea testing is going in general ? ,personally I think good considering first of class etc ,think the cdg carrier had a lot more rocky road getting there but its a great ship now ,suppose in real world conditions we will find out I guess in a few yes time .my own thing was I keep thinking about the automated pallet handling in rough weather will it still work if it has too or snag up with bending and flexing of the ship in rough seas .I'm sure they thought of that tho ,apart from that so good so far and well done everybody let's hope it stays that way when operational :-)

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QEC Eye in the SKY
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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by QEC Eye in the SKY »






Time to 'buzz' the tower! More F18's doing a fly by of QNLZ.

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SKB
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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by SKB »

Maverick: "It's time to buzz the tower!"
Goose: 'Which tower? There's two!' :lol:

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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by RetroSicotte »

Clearly the answer is "both of them" and thread the needle between them. ;)

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SKB
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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by SKB »

WhiteWhale wrote:does anyone know the dimensions of the aircraft lifts?
28.5m long* (inner edge) (or 93 feet 5 inches)
25.5m long* (outer edge) (or 83 feet 6 inches)
15m wide* (inner to outer) (or 49 feet 2 inches)

F-35B Length: 15.4m (50.5ft)
F-35B Wingspan: 10.7m (35ft)

*Measurements obtained from a 1:1000 rescaled photoshop image, assuming QE is actually the 'official' 280m long.


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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by QEC Eye in the SKY »

SKB wrote:'Which tower? There's two!' :lol:
One flight control tower, one bridge ..... ;)

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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by Timmymagic »

inch wrote:I keep thinking about the automated pallet handling in rough weather will it still work if it has too or snag up with bending and flexing of the ship in rough seas .I'm sure they thought of that tho
They did. On another forum one of the designers of the system posted a picture of it being trialled. They had a massive rig set up to test it, with the 'mole' moving on track whilst the rig moved through 3 dimensions.

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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by Timmymagic »

RetroSicotte wrote:Clearly the answer is "both of them" and thread the needle between them.
They'd have to bring a Buccaneer pilot out of retirement for that... :D

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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by Scimitar54 »

They'd have to bring a buccaneer pilot out of retirement for that
And a Buccaneer !

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Re: Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

Post by S M H »

Timmymagic wrote:They'd have to bring a Buccaneer pilot out of retirement for that...
I'm going to put J Tate forward for that. I was on a R.A.F. RTTL he flew past so low that we were looking down from the bridge into his cockpit . needless to say he didn't get a rollicking from 12 squadron . Did from his Mrs Annabelle when she found out. Prior to the handover of 1102 M.C.U. to the Gibraltar squadron on splash target practice. A matador pilot tried to get behind him in Gibraltar ranges he dropped so low and fast that he was almost fishing for flying fish in the air. Getting the Buccaneer would be the problem.

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