Final Section of Giant Aircraft Carrier Sets Sail
The final section of HMS Queen Elizabeth, the first of two new aircraft carriers being built for the U.K. Royal Navy, has left BAE Systems’ shipyard at Scotstoun today to embark on a 600 mile journey to Rosyth. The Aft Island, also known as Upper Block 14, is the air traffic control tower of the ship and the center of all flight operations. Travelling around the north coast of Scotland, the block is scheduled to arrive into Rosyth on Thursday 20 June. Once the island has arrived all sections of the first of class HMS Queen Elizabeth will have been delivered. Angus Holt, Queen Elizabeth Class Block Delivery Director for BAE Systems, said, “The delivery of the Aft Island is a huge milestone for the aircraft carrier program and we are extremely proud to have achieved this.
Plans Laid For Aircraft Carrier Bosphorus Transit
Turkish shipping experts will meet soon to discuss how to safely sail a giant aircraft carrier without engines through the Bosphorus that bisects the country's biggest city, Anatolian news agency said. It said the panel had already met once and denied passage through the straits to the 300-m (1,000-ft.) Varyag, a decommissioned aircraft carrier, citing security concerns for the city of Istanbul. The Varyag has been idling in the Black Sea since July. Passage through the Bosphorus, the narrow, busy and winding waterway that links the Black Sea to the Mediterranean and the world's oceans, is not normally restricted for commercial ships in peacetime under the 1936 Montreux treaty.
Turkish Shipping Panel Mulls Safe Sailing Through Bosphorus
Turkish shipping experts will reportedly meet soon to discuss how to safely sail a giant aircraft carrier without engines through the Bosphorus that bisects the country's biggest city. It was reported that the panel had already met once and denied passage through the straits to the 1,000-ft. Varyag, a decommissioned aircraft carrier, citing security concerns for the city of Istanbul. The Varyag has been idling in the Black Sea since July. Passage through the Bosphorus, the narrow, busy and winding waterway that links the Black Sea to the Mediterranean and the world's oceans, is not normally restricted for commercial ships in peacetime under the 1936 Montreux treaty.
