How many gallons of fuel does a modern aircraft carrier carry?
How many miles/feet does it get per gallon?
Modern aircraft carriers are typically nuclear powered.
However, a Kittyhawk class carrier has a 4 million gallon fuel capacity. This fuel is used to power everything aboard the carrier, not just for locomotion.
The U.S. only has 3 non nuclear carriers in service, as far as I know. Two are Kittyhawk class, the other is the John F. Kennedy. I believe the Kennedy is the last non nuclear carrier deployed. It was commission in 1968.
I don’t know what the maximum unrefueled range of any of these ships are. If you find that, you are in business.
This isn’t a direct answer, but perhaps it’ll be a close enough analogue. Anyway, these are the QE2’s figures:
[quote]
[ul][li]The ship’s fuel oil tank capacity of 4,381.4 tonnes is sufficient for 10 days’ sailing at 32.5 knots, equalling 7,800 miles.[/li][li]One gallon of fuel will move the ship 49.5 feet; with the previous steam turbine engines, one gallon of fuel moved the ship 36 feet.[/ul][/li][/quote]
I’m too lazy to convert tons to gallons, so you’re on your own there. I’ve also seen a “factoid” being circulated that claims the QE2 only moves 6 inches on a gallon of diesel, but as these canards tend to be, it’s complete hooey.
According to this site, the USS Kitty Hawk has a range of “14,805 at 20 knots or 7,400 at 30 knots.” Assuming we’re dealing with nautical miles, that roughly 90,000,000 feet at 20 knots or 45,000,000 at 30 knots. As scotth pointed out, the Kitty Hawk has a fuel capacity of 4,000,000 gallons, which gives a fuel efficiency of 11.25-22.5 feet/gallon. Of course, in city mode, you’ll get much less.
You can also find interesting facts at the official naval site for the Kitty Hawk, such as the average gallons of milk consumed daily: 400-600.
I recently read an old '63 magazine that had a brief tidbit about the Enterprise, being the first nuclear powered carrier… As I recall, they said the reactors only needed to be refueled every twenty years.
With nukes, the only limit to deployment length is food, conventional fuel and spare parts. Subs often stay under for three months or more, and I believe there was one mention in Blind Man’s Bluff about a sub making a circumnavigation, with a mission, entirely submerged- it was either nine months or nearly a full year. I’ll have to dig the book out and see if I can find it.