The USS Enterprise has set sail on her final mission. The fifty year old carrier is heading to the Middle East on a seven-month deployment. The “Big E,” as she is called, was the first nuclear powered air craft carrier in the world. She is also the longest US aircraft carrier as well as the oldest, commissioned in 1961. Where all other US nuclear carriers have two nuclear reactors, the Enterprise has eight. She also has four rudders, where most carriers have two.
She has been deployed to conflicts around the world including Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Persian Gulf. The Enterprise was one of the first ships to respond after the Sept. 11 attacks. She was a spotter ship for John Glenn’s historic orbit around the earth and played a starring role in Tom Cruise’s hit movie, “Top Gun.”
On her return to the United States, the USS Enterprise is scheduled to be deactivated on December 1, 2012. Her reactors and nuclear fuel will be removed at Newport News, the shipyard where she was built, in a process which will take until 2015. After her fuel is removed, she will be scrapped.
Storied carrier, ‘the Big E,’ makes final voyage
Thanks to Phil Leon and Alaric Bond for passing along the news.
Literally the end of an era. Enterprise is unique among nuclear carriers because she was built with 8 submarine size nuke plants, 2 per screw, to drive her. She has some terrible corrosion problems in her lower hull that have been repaired more than once in an effort to put off scrapping her for as long as possible, but the time has finally come.
Not surprised that NN will do the plant removal….it will be quite a project considering there are engineering spaces in the lower hull that have been sealed off for years due to radiation and previous structural corrosion repairs. At one point in the late 80’s there was serious speculation about whether the entire engineering plant might drop right out of the bottom of the hull some day, things were looking that grim.
On another note, when we finally get back into the business of actually building the next class of carrier, the USS Gerald Ford(CVN-21) class, they will be outfitted with the new EMALS (Electromagnetic Aircraft Launching System). It’s a 300′ rail gun that uses electricity instead of steam to power the aircraft launching engine. It is difficult to explain what an enormous change that will mean for these ships, because it removes so much piping, hardware, and hundreds of tons of weight in just water from the ship. The biggest hotel load on the steam plant in a Nimitz class hull is for the aircraft catapults, and without that load, there’s no telling how long the nuclear power cores might last.
One door closes, and another one opens….