Aircraft Carriers III

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Well, it is late here in the western US on May 28th. Which means it is well into the day on May 29th at Cochin in India.

I have been looking all over for ANY pictures of the re-launch of the Vikrant in India. Any news story of it. I cannot find any. It was supposed to happen on the 28th in India...which is now yesterday in India.

Did it happen? What's going on?
 

aksha

Captain
Well, it is late here in the western US on May 28th. Which means it is well into the day on May 29th at Cochin in India.

I have been looking all over for ANY pictures of the re-launch of the Vikrant in India. Any news story of it. I cannot find any. It was supposed to happen on the 28th in India...which is now yesterday in India.

Did it happen? What's going on?


got this from a member in an indian forum,

i can't make much sense of this, but i suppose you can explain

One of my friends working there told that they are not sure whether the ship will float or not.So had too fill hydrogen for that.And they will put the ship one more day in docks after filling hydrogen.
Donno much about ships or hydrology.So am just copy pasting the words of my friend working there.
 

Alvaritus

New Member
Registered Member
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http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/17-wacky-naval-aviation-terms-you-never-knew-you-wanted-1707214888[/URL]
1273053544063347597.jpg


Our good friend and
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is back to share with us his list of the weirdest terms any Naval Aviator or carrier-borne Naval Flight Officer would know.

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We sat at the end of the runway, our F-14's GE-110 motors humming, awaiting our clearance to…
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Make sure to also check out Joe’s fantastic Foxtrot Alpha contribution that puts you right in the Tomcat’s cockpit during a tense night carrier catapult launch by
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LCDR Joe "Smokin" Ruzicka, the last F-14 Radar Intercept Officer to fly the Tomcat…
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...

A huge thanks to Joe Ruzicka for putting another fascinating piece together for FA readers!
 
update on the CVN-78:
PEO Carriers: Advanced Arresting Gear Delays Won’t Stop Ford From Delivering On Time
The program executive officer for aircraft carriers told USNI News he is confident the carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) will deliver on time despite delays in the Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) program.

Rear Adm. Tom Moore said Thursday that the AAG setbacks created about four to six weeks of schedule pressure to the ship, but he is striving to make up that time.
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that the General Atomics-built component had a design flaw, but the solution that has been implemented seems to be working well, he told USNI News.

“They put a winch, if you will, at the end of the water twister to rotate the entire assembly so they can wrap the cable around the purchase cable drum. That’s worked fine,” he said.

Most of the arresting system has been installed, and shipbuilders are now adding the final section, the cable shock absorbers – which Moore said are very large and go in a confined space. Newport News Shipbuilding is installing the cable shock absorbers now, at the same time workers put the non-skid coating on the flight deck, which Moore called “a kind of a ballet” to do simultaneously.

Moore said in March that the improved AAG design would have to be tested at Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division Lakehurst, but for scheduling reasons he couldn’t postpone installation while awaiting the test results.

“If Lakehurst uncovers something on the system that has to be fixed, the risk I’m taking is I’m installing it and then I have to go back and fix something that’s all ready installed, it’s more challenging. Really at this point, I don’t have a choice,” he said in March.

Despite that challenge, Moore said today that, “I’m a year out, my goal is to get everything done before we deliver, so that’s what we’re driving for right now.”

“I don’t know that we’ll retire all the risk here over the course of the next year. I will tell you that we will have the entire system installed prior to delivery next March,” he elaborated.
“There may be some testing that has to be completed [after delivery], we’re going to take a look at where it makes sense to do that testing. If the last of the testing on AAG is the only thing keeping us from going to sea – the sea trials on the ship does not, we don’t launch and recover aircraft, we don’t really do that until June. So we’ll take a look at it. And if we’re talking a handful of testers and it makes sense to get out to sea and test the rest of the ship and then maybe complete that [AAG] testing in the period between the end of March and June, which is when we’re supposed to launch and recover aircraft, we’ll take a look at that.”

The other new system on the flight deck, the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) “is probably one of the best news stories in the program,” Moore said. The Navy finished no-load tests on Catapult 2, including 22 shots in one day, and “it worked like a champ.”

Catapult 2 is set for dead-load testing next month, which involves catapulting large, wheeled, steel vessels weighing up to 80,000 pounds off the front of the ship to simulate the weight of an actual aircraft.

Catapult 1 will follow shortly behind, with no-load testing next week. Construction on Catapults 3 and 4 will wrap up soon so testing can begin shortly afterwards, Moore said.

Overall, the ship is 90-percent complete, with 53 percent of the compartments turned over to the ship’s crew – which is “significantly further ahead of where we were on CVN-77,” Moore noted. The crew will move aboard in August.

“We’re certainly not without our challenges,” Moore said, but “we’re in a good position. … We’re in a position we’d like to be [in] with 308 days to go.”
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aksha

Captain
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KOCHI: The indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) being built at the Cochin Shipyard for the Indian Navy will be undocked on Saturday, marking completion of the critical stage of phase-II of the constriction.

“Though it is a major step towards the the completion of a crucial phase of the prestigious project, no formal function has been organised in connection with the undocking of the vessel,” said Shipyard authorities.

“Undocking means that the work that needs to be carried out in the dry dock has been completed. All the underwater works have been completed, and the ship is ready to float out of the dry dock. The remaining work can be completed while the ship is floating,” they said.

When the first phase was completed in August 2013, the 37,500-tonne warship was launched by then Defence Minister A K Antony’s wife Elizabeth, and was named INS Vikrant. The warship is supposed to begin sea trials in 2017, and will be inducted into the Navy by 2018 end.

INS Vikrant is capable of carrying 36 fixed-wing aircraft, including Russian-made MiG-29K and the yet-to-be-inducted indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Finally, a good article on what has happened with the May 30th missed undocking, and planned June 1st undocking of Vikrant:

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2015-0530-Vikrant-01.jpg

Thum! Kaun Ata Hai? said:
Undocking of INS Vikrant (IAC-1) has been pushed back to Monday, June 1, 2015. The aircraft carrier was to have undocked on Saturday, May 30 on completion of phase 2 structural build up. In preparation, the carrier - which will displace 40,000 ton on completion, but currently weighs just 26,000 tons - was loaded with ballast and flooding of the bay dock initiated on Friday, May 29, 2015.

However, undocking had to be pushed back to Monday due to unfavorable tide, unforeseen accumulation of silt, and a problem with lowering the building bay dock gate, which was last operated when the ship was brought in a year-and-a-half ago.

All major equipment has been fitted into the vessel, which has now acquired the shape of an aircraft carrier, with a finished hull.

Following undocking, for the next year-and-a-half INS Vikrant would be fitted with abling, piping, accommodation facility, air conditioning and ventilation systems as part of Phase-2 construction.

The equipment fitted on the carrier will be operated only towards the end of Phase-2 construction. Basin trials will commence in 2017 for eventual delivery in end-2018.

IAC-1 was officially launched on August 12, 2013 with over 80% of the structure completed; the ship was fitted with its two LM2500 Gas Turbines developing a total power of 80 MW, diesel alternators capable of producing about 24 MW and main gear box.

Following launch, the ship was moved out of the building dock and positioned in the refitting dock for the next Phase of outfitting. (The building dock cannot accommodate over 20,000 ton displacement)
 
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