When finished, the carrier will be 1,092 feet long, weigh 97,000 tons and have 4.5 acres of deck space for about 75 aircraft. Nimitz-class ships have crews of about 6,000.
Quite impressive - along with the $4.5 billion price tag.
We’ll have to wait until 2009 to see it completed. However, they said the USS Ronald Reagan is scheduled to be commissioned in May. [8D]
Here’s the Press Release at the Northrop Grumman Newport News site: CVN 77 Naming Ceremony
And now they are gearing up to build the Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78).
And let’s face it, if your sole claim to fame is being chosen for VP by Nixon as someone so totally useless “(couldn’t chew gum and walk at the same time”) that Congress wouldn’t dare impeach him, and you still get a CVN named for you…
My brother was on the Reagan on its first trip. They were on a shake down run from Norfolk to San Diego. He said it dosent fit in the Panama Canal so they had to sail around the horn. It was the first time he was ever sea sick. And they were on an aircraft carrier!
Yes, but almost impossible really… I never liked President names as Ship names (irrespective of red/blue, left/right leaning). No one beats the Brits in naming ships… Indomitable… Invincible… Illustrious… we have… Ford, Bush… lol… We should have stuck to the Intrepid/Enterprise/Constellation type of names.