# If an Nimitz class aircraft carrier was found in a cornfield in Kansas... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 8, 2012, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-nimitz-class-aircraft-carrier-was-found-in-a-cornfield-in-kansas/608794 "2012-01-08T03:51:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Walther\_Ego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Walther\_Ego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walther_Ego)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-nimitz-class-aircraft-carrier-was-found-in-a-cornfield-in-kansas/608794/121 "2012-01-18T09:20:26Z")
Your idea is intriguing. It will be impossible to fill the ship without some air pockets. And there must be many electric capacitators in the ship. If we fail to transport this ship, we will at least make it vanish. But air in water is a really good floater, water being colossally more heavy than any gas. Even with a vacuum you would need a lot more volume to float the ship, so that is not going to be nearly enough alone. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-nimitz-class-aircraft-carrier-was-found-in-a-cornfield-in-kansas/608794/122 "2012-01-18T15:39:19Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > Simply sitting in the dirt would probably be enough to snap the keel. These ships are designed very carefully to be supported by the water that surrounds them, and to simply be balanced on the keel would probably cause it to snap. Remember in _Titanic_ when the keel snapped simply from being out of the water? That would happen. Even worse, carriers have a pretty pronounced V-shape cross-section, so it would certainly be lying on its side, a position it was not designed for and probably couldn’t maintain. You’d have some extremely critical welds simply ripped out of position, and the whole thing would be ruined. You _might_ be able to reuse some of the essentials (maybe the radar tower, and some structures from the flight deck) in a refit of an existing ship or as part of a replacement, but most of the body would be scrapped. > > Even if she were miraculously undamaged, no, there’s not a realistic way to move a single object that large over that distance. I guess you could jack it up, then move the jacks on wheels, and it’s a fairly straight and level shot from Kansas to the Mississippi, but even a moderate curve in the freeway would probably ruin your day, even assuming that you didn’t do tens of millions of dollars worth of damage to the freeway itself from the weight of the thing. Given that Kansas wheat (more likely) fields are even flatter than the rest of the state, and that, despite the appearance of the abovewater portion, carriers have flat bottoms (helps with stability among other things) it would probably be upright and relatively undamaged. Fancy cradles when it’s in a graving dock? Nope, just a forest of huge concrete pier blocks. (Been there, seen that, got stories. :D) Moving it? I doubt it. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-nimitz-class-aircraft-carrier-was-found-in-a-cornfield-in-kansas/608794/123 "2012-01-18T15:48:23Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > The Mississippi River isn’t in the general vicinity of Kansas. You could, however, reach the Arkansas River, and from there sail it to the Mississippi. Middle of Kansas puts you in the general vicinity of Hutchinson, and the Arkansas (They say it Ar - Kansas there) River around there is a large creek running down a riverbed most times of the year. ---
**Author:** ![CutterJohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/91b2a8/32.png) [@CutterJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CutterJohn)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-nimitz-class-aircraft-carrier-was-found-in-a-cornfield-in-kansas/608794/124 "2012-01-18T16:33:11Z")
> [@MacLir](#): > > (Been there, seen that, got stories. :D) Its like a damned cavern under there! Was also crazy yelling at the cold iron watch through the seawater scoop. Also, by my figures it’d have a ground pressure of about 15psi(less than your average car), so its not going to sink in very much. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-nimitz-class-aircraft-carrier-was-found-in-a-cornfield-in-kansas/608794/125 "2012-01-18T17:40:00Z")
Probably best to leave it there and simply trick our enemies into fighting us in Kansas. We should definitely have the element of surprise on our side… ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2012, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-nimitz-class-aircraft-carrier-was-found-in-a-cornfield-in-kansas/608794/126 "2012-01-31T05:52:50Z")
Just noting that while most of the posts here (including my own) assumed that a ship would break its own keel if set down outside of the water or dry dock, [here’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MV_Blue_Marlin_carrying_USS_Cole.jpg) a picture of the USS _Cole_ sitting on the back of a big honking ship, with the keel on hard flat surface and minimal support. I realize that the Cole is only half the length and a tenth the weight of a _Nimitz_ class carrier, but I’m surprised to find that even a ship that large doesn’t crack its own keel that way. Just thought I’d throw it out there. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2012, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-nimitz-class-aircraft-carrier-was-found-in-a-cornfield-in-kansas/608794/127 "2012-01-31T06:13:43Z")
Slip and Slide? ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c77e96/32.png) [@Clark\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_K)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2012, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-nimitz-class-aircraft-carrier-was-found-in-a-cornfield-in-kansas/608794/128 "2012-01-31T07:13:11Z")
1: Contact Nick Fury and get S.H.I.E.L.D.'s specs for giant helicopter rotors. 2: Install rotors. 3: Profit! No, wait. I mean fly it out. Easy-peasy. ---
**Author:** ![Walther\_Ego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Walther\_Ego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walther_Ego)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2012, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-nimitz-class-aircraft-carrier-was-found-in-a-cornfield-in-kansas/608794/129 "2012-01-31T08:38:31Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > Just noting that while most of the posts here (including my own) assumed that a ship would break its own keel if set down outside of the water or dry dock, [here’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MV_Blue_Marlin_carrying_USS_Cole.jpg) a picture of the USS _Cole_ sitting on the back of a big honking ship, with the keel on hard flat surface and minimal support. I realize that the Cole is only half the length and a tenth the weight of a _Nimitz_ class carrier, but I’m surprised to find that even a ship that large doesn’t crack its own keel that way. Just thought I’d throw it out there. Well, post 58 had some links to aircraft carriers docked and they look relatively easy in this respect. One issue is transverse strenght. Normally the weight is carried by buoyancy along each frame. When docked, you either build high supports or have everything supported from the bottom. The figures given indicate that warships can take most of the weight on the keel. Considering the deep v-shape of warships, I’m surprised at the low and cheap docking arrangement shown. It may be a partly a purposeful design: maybe they are designed to be easily docked? I’m not very familiar with this fast ships. But it seems that if a carrier does not keel over, it can be supported strenghtwise by its keel. It may require some very careful balancing. Of course, the keel of any ship is always very strong, because it is an important part of the longitudinal strength of the ship. In bow, with most modern forms, it is easy to make a very similar weight distribution to buoyancy. In the aft you necessarily lose the rear part of buoyancy. Again, the pictures imply that the ship strength is simply sufficient. The high support structures on Blue Marlin are for transverse accelerations due to waves. Docking is always done on a rigid surface and that takes very careful levelling of the supports. Grounding usually means very uneven support, typically on one end of the ship, and typically leads to serious damage. Magically appearing on a perfectly level corn field actually looks much better than I initially thought. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-an-nimitz-class-aircraft-carrier-was-found-in-a-cornfield-in-kansas/608794.md?page=6)