CVN-78, the USS Gerald R. Ford, has been delivered. The 100,000 behemoth is still a few years away from being ready to fight ISIS / North Korea / Decepticons, but it is an exciting day for the Navy.
They would have brought it home last week but the salesman was a pain in the ass about the undercoating, so the navy had to shop around to other dealers to get the sale pushed through…
Ahhhhh, nothing like that"new ship" smell…
In tangentially related news, the Navy has released some photos of the USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) operating together in the Sea of Japan. They’re pretty cool if you think aircraft carriers are cool:
http://www.navy.mil/management/photodb/photos/170601-N-OY799-1389.JPG
http://www.navy.mil/management/photodb/photos/170601-N-GD109-195.JPG
http://www.navy.mil/management/photodb/photos/170601-N-GD109-200.JPG
http://www.navy.mil/management/photodb/photos/170601-N-GD109-070.jpg
nm
Bah. Let me know when the first helicarrier is delivered.
Also, I have to doubt that any future Star Trek series will open with words like these:
“Space. The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Gerald R. Ford. Its continuing mission…”
Don’t worry, the next Big E is due around 2025. It will be CVN-79.
The combined collective pleas of Trekkies and Navy History buffs convinced them there should be a new Enterprise carrier.
It would have been sooner, but the navy declined the CDW insurance and so the sales guy is being an ass about every single scuff and ding. Plus, they booked a 5 door automatic but ended up with a tiny 3 door manual.
So when do they take it out and get it on plane?
Correction: the next Ford class carrier will be CVN-79 John F. Kennedy. The CVN-80 Enterprise! The JFK has had its keep laid. The Enterprise is only in planning.
Nice little factoid, some of the steel from CVN-65, The Enterprise, will be recycled and used to build CVN-80.
“to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilization, to boldly pardon the USS Richard M. Nixon.”
Neat!
Makes me wonder what the ops are to make sure aircraft land on the correct carrier.
This is correct, and there was a lot of petitioning by those of us who served on CVN-65 to have a new Enterprise.
The Captain’s quarters onboard USS Enterprise CVN-65 had porthole windows that were salvaged from USS Enterprise CV-6, so it’s cool to see the tradition continuing. I hope they re-use the portholes from CV-6 as well.
Trump’s comments in that article are a great example of “penny wise and pound foolish.” If we should ditch EMALS because of the initial delays and cost overruns, well then we might as well have never had F-22, F-35, Seawolf, Virginia-class, B-2, etc.
I signed at least 1 of the petitions. CV-6 is the most decorate ship in US history. At one point she was our main defense in the Pacific. CVN-65 as the first nuclear powered Carrier continue the tradition of great service and making history. So I look forward to CVN-80 as the third Big “E”.
A pilot who lands on the wrong ship has to buy them a case of beer.
I was figuring it was more like, “put on this immersion suit; start swimming”. 
But it must be a problem that occurs from time to time. No navigation system (computer and/or human) is error-free. The towers have the hull number on, do the flight decks?
That, and a little old lady from Pasadena was looking at it in the morning, so the US just had to pull the trigger on the deal.
Of course it has. [keel that is]
They do have the numbers on the flight deck. Largely due to the problems you’re suspecting back in WWII.
Pardon me for being pedantic, but I thought it didn’t become “USS” Gerald R. Ford until its commissioning.
And then they can transfer Captain James Kirk from the USS Zumwalt to command it.