back in 1910 eugene burton eli became the first pilot to successfully take off in a plane from the
deck of a navy ship other ships were soon adapted for launching planes and by 1927 the u.s navy had
built two lexington class aircraft carriers which became the foundation for the future fleet the
u.s still has the largest carrier fleet in the world handily outnumbering every other country
but there's a lot more to aircraft carriers than big flat ships on which planes can land
10. the japanese built submarine aircraft carriers the japanese were innovators in the
world of aircraft carriers during the second world war japanese forces were looking for a way to gain
the upper hand on the us with a large force and great weaponry the us was a formidable opponent
so japan needed something unexpected what they came up with was the i-400 class of submarine
at 400 feet long and displacing 6.56 tons these machines were enormous they were designed to carry
three bombers for 37 500 miles without needing to refuel the bombers were held in a 115 foot
long hangar that also held an 85-foot catapult to launch them in order to manage the cramped
spaces they outfitted the bombers for a water landing a crane could retrieve them and place
them back in the sub the wings folded along the fuselage and the tail folded up as well so that
they'd fit in the hangar only two of these subs were ever launched and the war ended before they
reached their intended target they had painted the bombers on board with u.s markings a violation of
the rules of engagement and would likely have been able to cause a lot of damage before they
were discovered had things gone differently 9. brazil tried to sell one on ebay it cost the u.s
military about 12.8 billion dollars to build the latest ford class aircraft carriers in its fleet
obviously the u.s military has basically the cream of the crop when it comes to aircraft carriers and
their technology is a little more cutting edge than other countries but that doesn't mean an
aircraft carrier in the uk china or brazil is just slapped together from popsicle sticks and
duct tape for those interested in owning their own carrier they can occasionally be picked up
at a bargain in 2019 the brazilian government auctioned off their carrier the sao paulo
with bids starting at 1.25 million the country had previously purchased the carrier from france
a decade earlier at over 12 million dollars just like with cars the depreciation is a killer at the
time brazil retired the vessel in 2017 it was the oldest commissioned aircraft carrier in the world
having been built back in 1963 brazil had barely even been able to use it in the years they owned
it thanks to massive repairs that were needed and a series of deadly accidents including an
explosion and a fire in 2021 the ship was sold for scrap in 2003 the country tried to sell another
carrier on ebay but the listing was pulled because it's illegal to sell military ordnance on the site
number 8 an illusion on carriers may cause pilots to crash if the movie top gun taught us anything
about aircraft carriers it's that landing and taking off from one is a bit of an adrenaline rush
but all that fast-paced excitement is built upon a foundation of serious danger what movies like that
don't mention is that it's not enemy aircraft taking out most pilots but rather things like
spatial disorientation pilots are susceptible to something called somatographic illusions
this happens thanks to any rapid acceleration and deceleration like pilots taking off and landing
will experience as you accelerate your body feels like it's pitching upwards the opposite happens
with rapid deceleration these illusions are just that illusions but if you react to them
as some pilots too the results can be deadly as you try to compensate for movement that is
actually not happening it's an affectation of your inner ear that causes you to feel this way
a pilot on an aircraft carrier taking off may feel the need to push the nose of the plane
down on take-off fearing that they're angling too high this can cause them to literally
dive right off the edge of the carrier into the ocean part of the reason many aircraft carriers
use catapult launchers for their planes and pilots don't even touch the controls until the plane has
been launched from the deck so this illusion can't cause them to overcompensate and crash 7. u.s law
requires a minimum of 11 aircraft carriers the us navy currently has 11 aircraft carriers in service
and they work a grueling schedule the military recently deployed their uss nimitz for 10 straight
months in the past six months was the longest deployment that crews could expect and this was
typical of how things went during the cold war back in the day the u.s had up to 15 aircraft
carriers operating at one time the 11 that are in service currently are the minimum number that u.s
law allows in fact there must be 11 in service but there are still a few issues with that the
most recent carrier in the fleet the uss gerald r ford which cost nearly 13 billion dollars isn't
actually operational right now it's possible that it won't be in service until 2024 the rest of the
fleet is taking up the slack with extended stays at sea that are pushing crews to their limits
there has been discussion about adding extra carriers to the fleet to help alleviate some of
the burden especially since there are technically only 10 right now but so far it looks like no
help is coming for the crews deployed at sea on extended runs number 6. nuclear aircraft carriers
are refueled every 25 years in 1961 the u.s navy welcomed the uss enterprise into the fleet
as the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier it was groundbreaking the vessel stayed in
service until 2012 when it was rendered inactive and then in 2017 it was fully decommissioned
nuclear carriers were huge game changes for the american navy unlike traditional vessels which
are limited by their fuel sources specifically how long they can operate without refueling
a nuclear carrier has no such limitations of course they need to be refueled sometimes but
that was once every 25 years without having to outfit the craft with a massive engine to burn
coal or oil plus keeping bulky fuel on board that wastes space a nuclear carrier is free
to devote that space to other resources including weapons that meant a nuclear carrier was not only
formidable in the way that it could avoid frequent fuel stops but it would be better outfitted for
war a nuclear carrier is able to hold 30 more weapons than a non-nuclear counterpart number
five the us has more carriers than the rest of the world at the height of their aircraft carrier
arsenal the united states had more carriers than the entire rest of the world combined during the
second world war they had commissioned over 150 of them as of 2021 the united states has had to
settle for having several fewer carriers but still one more than the rest of the world combined as we
mentioned earlier the u.s has 11 carriers in its fleet at all times at one point there were 15 in
service and it's possible the number will go up again one day but for now the u.s is number one
with 11. while the second largest fleet is the three-way tie between china the uk and italy all
three countries are sporting two aircraft carriers coming in third place are france russia spain and
india who all have won a piece and that's it no other nation has an active aircraft carrier any
longer though other countries did have some in the past brazil for instance number four the navy had
fresh water carriers currently the u.s aircraft carrier fleet is split up as the atlantic fleet
and the pacific fleet every other country in the world that has an aircraft carrier has it deployed
in an ocean as well because that just makes sense where else would someone ever need to use such a
vessel the two most unique carriers in u.s navy history were the uss wolverine and the uss sable
both of these carriers ran on coal at a time when most other ships had switched to fuel oil
and while that is certainly noteworthy it wasn't what made them stand out the most the wolverine
and the sable were both stationed in lake michigan miles rainy ocean these were invaluable for the
war effort as thousands of naval aviators learned to take off and land at sea on these two vessels
before heading out onto the ocean the wolverine was originally a paddle wheel steamer the sable
was a slightly larger paddle wheel liner that joined the wolverine and being converted over
to military use after japan attacked pearl harbor the military had no pre-made vessels to spare for
the war effort so they adapted wolverine and sable to military use from their former roles
as luxury tourist vessels by 1943 100 pilots per day were training on the ships after the war both
ships were quickly decommissioned and sold off for scrap 3. it costs millions per day to operate one
if a new ford class aircraft carrier sets the government back over 12 billion dollars it's worth
looking into what keeping the vessel running is going to cost a limited class carrier has a crew
of 6012 ford class carriers are larger but have a lower crew complement the cost of nuclear fuel
crew salaries weapons power food and more really does add up a carrier strike group which includes
the air wing as well as an attack sub and five surface combatants along with the carrier itself
operates at a cost of 6.5 million dollars each and every day that means a fleet of 11 carriers
is going to have an approximate cost of 71.5 million dollars per day that works out at around
26 billion every year just to run the fleet of aircraft carriers these numbers are definitely
rough since the gerald ford is not in service right now so that means things are costing less
on the other hand we already addressed that the fleet is running on an increased schedule these
days with longer deployments so that is increasing the overall budget but when you're dealing with
numbers like 26 billion dollars quibbling over a few million here and there apparently it doesn't
really matter number two tony scott spent 25 000 to move one with the incredible costs associated
with operating aircraft carriers you may be wondering about one often overlooked aspect
of the fleet and how they're used when you see an aircraft carrier in a hollywood movie well just
how did it get there many movies will actually use stock footage of aircraft carriers in particular
takeoffs and landings for aircraft typically this isn't a huge part of the plot so it's not
a big deal but the 1986 movie top gun was about two pilots who spent a good chunk of their time
flying two and four aircraft carriers in a very realistic fashion and since this was well before
the era of constructing cg realities something else had to be done the film's director tony
scott got the navy to agree to let him use the uss enterprise as well as a squadron of fighter
jets the studio paid a large sum of the money to make use of the equipment including nearly eight
thousand dollars an hour on jet fuel but one of the most remarkable costs was related to the uss
enterprise itself there was a scene in the movie that tony scott felt would be better lit with the
sun at a different angle that meant the carrier needed to be turned the entire shot was going to
take about five minutes scott had to personally write a check for 25 000 to cover the cost of
adjusting the carrier's position 1. one was built from ice one of the most incredible things about
an aircraft carrier is the fact that it works at all the ford class carrier has a displacement of
a hundred thousand tons that a steel vessel of that size can operate on the water at all
seems incredible ships back in the day were made from wood because it floats and it took
some scientific know-how to adapt ship designs to vessels that should otherwise sink wood and steel
are definitely the most common materials that come to mind when we think of any kind of boat and of
course polymers and fiberglass have their place as well but for the job that an aircraft carrier does
steel has to be the answer except not necessarily there was a time when pykrete was used pycrete was
the invention of geoffrey pike a man tasked with doing the impossible make an aircraft carrier that
could never sink and he wanted to achieve this by making it out of ice pike proposed the idea
to british forces who for some reason actually thought it was ingenious pykrete was the substance
that pike proposed to build this structure out of a mixture of 85 water to 15 wood pulp the
resulting ice was almost bafflingly strong yet workable you could easily shape the ice and even
saw off pieces to develop the structure but at the same time bullets and torpedoes barely damaged it
at all it was also incredibly resistant to thawing out once it had frozen pike's creation was known
as project habakkuk and it was transplanted to canada winston churchill wanted a 2 000 foot long
one so the canadian military set about building a proof of concept model in a lake in alberta
the end result was 60 feet long and weighed a thousand tons the full-scale model never came
to fruition for a number of reasons the cooling system would have tripled the cost and they needed
300 000 tons of wood pulp there was also no way to build one on the timeline that they had the
project was eventually abandoned and took a solid year for the test model to finally melt
so i really hope you enjoyed this video if you did please do make sure you check out another
channel that i do call megaprojects if you enjoyed the sort of content we covered today
i really think you'll dig that channel there's a link to it below as always thank you for watching