CV-18 Fujian/003 CATOBAR carrier thread

Totoro said:

I do wonder why the curved section of the opening. Almost as if part of the oval opening for the elevator.

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I wonder as well.

However the deck height based on what we can see just wouldn't make sense for an elevator, nor does the lack of obvious hangar space in the immediate forward section in the hull that we can see.


I think the safest guess at this stage is that those two openings are for some other purpose and not for elevators/hangar deck. If we get any better pictures from different angles then we can reassess, but not at this stage imo

Great photo, note the two diggers and one cement truck in the bottom left corner - it looks like they are building something out into the river though its unclear why.

Modern submersible barges and floating docks can lift very large vessels, for instance at HII Pascagoula they launch almost complete LHA's (40k+ tonnes and 250+ metres using a floating dock, see here:

asif iqbal said:

Thanks I love looking back at these

How about CV-17?

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It certainly was fun to quietly follow the construction in the past. 7 months to build up to the flight deck. 19 months to ramp completion and sealing the deck. Another 8 months for island construction to launch. However, this schedule shouldn't be used for Carrier #3 because of the different construction method. I am surprised at how far they've built it, as I was expecting smaller sections like the QE, and the basin construction is awfully slow.

2013: Rumors of steel cutting.
March 2015: First signs of construction.
Sep 1, 2015: Bottom hull below water line excluding bulbous bow section completed.
Summary in photos: https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/plan-aircraft-carrier-programme-closed.t6479/page-427#post-366069

Oct 18, 2015: First sign of hangar module
Mar 2016: Bow section completed
Aug 4, 2016: Ramp completed

Sep 3, 2016: Deck sealing

Sep 21, 2016: Island lift
Nov 20, 2016: Major work completed
Apr 25, 2017: Launch

Another observation:

The smaller of the two gantry cranes and the environmental shelters are both only just wide enough to cover the lower hull, so unless they are going to demolish the shelters and stop using the smaller gantry crane they will have to relocate the lower hull before installing the flight-deck sponsons. It might be worth looking elsewhere in the shipyard, in the coming months, for flight-deck modules.

sealordlawrence said:

Another observation:

The smaller of the two gantry cranes and the environmental shelters are both only just wide enough to cover the lower hull, so unless they are going to demolish the shelters and stop using the smaller gantry crane they will have to relocate the lower hull before installing the flight-deck sponsons. It might be worth looking elsewhere in the shipyard, in the coming months, for flight-deck modules.

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Or when they're done with smaller crane and shelters being useful, they will just move them all the way to the left, so they're not over the hull sections. That may be why the crane rails extend all the way to the end of the road. For now. There is clear area that could perhaps even be used to make the rails even longer, to the left of the image.

Also, the shelters look like they are designed to be taken apart, if needed, rather than demolished.

The hull is too close to the rails of the larger crane for any significant sponson modules to be installed.

H2O said:

It certainly was fun to quietly follow the construction in the past. 7 months to build up to the flight deck. 19 months to ramp completion and sealing the deck. Another 8 months for island construction to launch. However, this schedule shouldn't be used for Carrier #3 because of the different construction method. I am surprised at how far they've built it, as I was expecting smaller sections like the QE, and the basin construction is awfully slow.

2013: Rumors of steel cutting.
March 2015: First signs of construction.
Sep 1, 2015: Bottom hull below water line excluding bulbous bow section completed.
Summary in photos: https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/plan-aircraft-carrier-programme-closed.t6479/page-427#post-366069

Oct 18, 2015: First sign of hangar module
Mar 2016: Bow section completed
Aug 4, 2016: Ramp completed

Sep 3, 2016: Deck sealing

Sep 21, 2016: Island lift
Nov 20, 2016: Major work completed
Apr 25, 2017: Launch

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Thanks again

sealordlawrence said:

Another observation:

The smaller of the two gantry cranes and the environmental shelters are both only just wide enough to cover the lower hull, so unless they are going to demolish the shelters and stop using the smaller gantry crane they will have to relocate the lower hull before installing the flight-deck sponsons. It might be worth looking elsewhere in the shipyard, in the coming months, for flight-deck modules.

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I think installation of flight deck sponsons will occur once the hull blocks have been moved to and assembled in a drydock.

Hmmm?? How reliable is this?

Deino said:

How reliable is this?

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It visualizes the thoughts that I already had. However I do not expect a module, which covers 2/3 of the later ship length.