Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

[Caribbean]

I think the original concept of 470 double deck London Buses envisiged by the ACA and RN is more efficient, as they could carry 80 Royal Marine Commandos each, not including shopping trolley or wheelchair spaces. Thats a total of 37,600 Royal Marine Commandos.

Shouldn't this be on the Amphibs thread
I think you've just changed my entire mental image of any future LHD!

[Little J]

OK, just watched the first episode

Although I wonder why Chris didn't do the voice over... And did anyone else get the feeling it was more like the second episode (was kinda expecting more ACA / design / testing to be seen).

Either way, looking forward to the next one

[SDL]

I enjoyed it. Gave the carrier a bit of a human element that i think a lot of the public won't have even thought about. looking forward to next weekend's episode.

[SKB]

Very disappointed by it.

It somehow skipped most of the actual construction of the QE, specifically all the years of block building, skidding, assembly, naming by HM The Queen and its eventual floating out. The documentary only actually begins during the late fitting out period in 2016, just a year before sea trials. The style of it had a strangely outdated late 1990's "fly on the wall" docu-drama feel to it, filled with incident reactions from the ships company while training and preparing for sea. I suppose the documentary was made for a general audience, or possibly as a sneaky RN recruitment tool, but overall I felt very underwhelmed by it.

[Little J]

Yeah, the "programme was 9 years in the making"... And they skipped over the first 7.5 years.

Maybe, they'll have more on the BBC website in the future.

[Opinion3]

I thought the programme was unimaginative. There was nothing I learnt from watching it, it needed to demonstrate the new skills and techniques being employed to create the thing. Even the theme which was taken, which in my view was the RN ramping up the ship made the RN look pretty stupid.

Sounded to me like the whole thing is one missile hit from being a coffin of electrocuted sailors. A bizarre and disappointing take on what is an impressive engineering achievement.

It seemed a bit like watching Top Gear to find that the presenters were inspecting a car with green protective board over the dashboard and the white plastic protective wrap still on. Unless they are going to do the big reveal and peal it off it is pretty boring TV. Show me the manufacture.

[matt00773]

The BBC show was interesting enough to watch. I was hoping though to see the design phase and how they arrived at what we know now as the QEC - but they just mentioned this in passing. They also didn't show any of the block construction and just a few snippets of these being delivered.

The only new thing I learned was that the hanger can hold 22 F-35s which is more than I expected. I guess that means the entire ship can carry many more than the 40 that often gets bandied about.

[RetroSicotte]

Hangar is 24 jets, I believe.

[RichardIC]

I suppose the documentary was made for a general audience

Who the heck dI’d you think it was going to be made for? Of course it was made for a general audience and it worked really, really well. It rightly focussed on people. Mainly because most people like watching programmes about people. Fewer like programmes about engineering.

When you’re making 120 minutes of prime time programming the biggest challenge is always going to be what to leave out.

[QEC Eye in the SKY]

Interesting from the 1SL.

[Pymes75]

I suppose the documentary was made for a general audience

Who the heck dI’d you think it was going to be made for? Of course it was made for a general audience and it worked really, really well. It rightly focussed on people. Mainly because most people like watching programmes about people. Fewer like programmes about engineering.

When you’re making 120 minutes of prime time programming the biggest challenge is always going to be what to leave out.

I broadly agree, but I do think they could have spent more time providing a greater insight into the engineering feat through the eyes of the people who designed and built her - along the lines of the 'How to build a nuclear submarine' programme which followed and interviewed many of the people who work at Barrow before going on to introducing the crew who could then feature in the next two programmes.

It feels like the documentary was only filmed over the last 12 months and therefore there was no way to feature many of the key people who built QNLZ - e.g. Ian Booth, Geoff Searle, David Downs, etc.

Still, I enjoyed the programme and I'm looking forward to watching her sea trials from inside the ship...

[PhillyJ]

It seems no matter how many reminders, Twitter updates etcetc I read I managed to forget that this was on last night! I blame a certain Mr Henry Weston and his vintage Cider of which I partook of 3 bottles whilst cooking Sunday Roast for the family ...I'll see it on iPlayer tonight!

[SKB]

* deleted *

[inch]

Does anybody know when next episode be aired ,just looked for upcoming sunday 8pm and its advertised as athletics. London marathon highlights

[SDL]

probably a couple of weeks then...

[sheep21]

Excellent programme and I very much enjoyed it. Great to see how the ships company became a ships company on board. I have seen enough online on how she was constructed, was lovely to see the process of becoming a living warship.

[serge750]

The show did remind me of the "sailor" series about the old Arkroyal from the buccaneer/phantom era, was glad to see it on tv, Didn't realise about the high voltage power cables in the engine room......ouch !

maybe if they bring out a DVD/Blue ray version it will have extras containing more of the engineering of this project.

Inch,SDL, sky planner says its on sunday 8pm after the London marathon, titled "in at the deep end"

[Bring Deeps]

Very good PR for the RN and, as someone has already pointed out, most documentaries these days are mini-soaps.

Anyway we already know the geeky details so for me this was more interesting.

Good also to see a bit more of Capt. Kyd who came across as pretty down to earth.

Of course TV is often smoke and mirrors. Add in military secrecy and we probably were never going to get anything else.

[Little J]

Does anybody know when next episode be aired ,just looked for upcoming sunday 8pm and its advertised as athletics. London marathon highlights

According to sky the next episode is on Sunday @ 8pm called In at the Deep End.

[Digger22]

I liked it. Not aimed at the converted, Trying to be a modern 'Sailor'. A few new bits in there such as the Engine room flood and seeing the blades being lowered into the water were interesting.

[PhillyJ]

Yep, I caught up with it on iPlayer last night and enjoyed it. I was surprised that the naming ceremony was not shown but as it was streamed live at the time I guess they thought the geeks would have already seen it all. Perhaps they'll have something on when she was commisioned instead.

I particularly enjoyed the fire fighting and the deck movements, would have loved to see that Sea Harrier take off though, just for a couple of minutes! Seeing the fibreglass F35B in shot with the Sea Harrier showed the difference in size as well. Looking forward to next episode.

[inch]

cheers you guys

[QEC Eye in the SKY]

[SKB]

QE April 2018.jpg

QE is undergoing a Capability Insertion Period (CIP), the fitting of additional equipment required for her next trial period in the US, to fly F-35B.
No Phalanx CIWS fitted yet.

Also had a training visit from Hampshire Fire & Rescue today. Please don't ask how many fire engines can fit on the flight deck...




The RAF 100 Baton Relay team also visited QE

[SKB]

I wonder if theres more Thermion heat proofing going on under the tents? Perhaps there wasn't enough time in Rosyth for the full coverage? Just a thought.