Buy Your Own Aircraft Carrier

Vodalian writes "Distinction as the last surviving Aircraft Carrier built in England for WW II and commissioned as the HMS Vengeance in late 1944, this unique vessel served the British then the Australian Navy as HMAS Vengeance prior to her sale to Brazil In 1956. Undergoing reconstruction and overhaul in Rotterdam from 1957 to 1960 she was commissioned as the Minas Gerais in December of that year. During her service with the Brazilian Navy she was overhauled from 1976 to 1980 completing a 5-year refit in 1981. She was decommissioned on the 16th of October 2001 and is currently for sale."

Comments

that's cheap

[luzrek]

And for only 4.5 million USD. If only I had that much.

Seriously, that thing would make one hell of a house. You could just more it up to a dock. Barge on the Seine my butt. I want an aircraft carrier in New York Harbor.

On second thought that would make one hell of a target for terrorists. Better put it somewhere in New Jersey.

Re:$4.5 million USD!

[Realistic_Dragon]

Thankfully new UK carriers don't have catapults, we switched to the ski jump style a while back which is much friendlier for the airframe and allows a greater take off weight, especially when coupled with BAE Harriers (or indeed a JSF).

Of course at one point we were even thinking of doing away with flight decks on carriers - there was an experimental sky hook system to catch a flying Harrier on a smaller ship. Thankfully abandoned due to sanity returning and the drugs wearing off :o)

Re:build or buy ?

[meringuoid]

Seriously, if you're a minor country 'build or buy' is a serious issue. Building a carrier is bloody expensive, but if you do so you give at least one of your port cities a major employment boost and at the end of it you get a shiny modern carrier. Buying someone else's cast-offs is far cheaper, but you'll have to accept that it's a fixer-upper and pay for refits and awful maintenance bills.

The original owner of this carrier is currently starting work on two really _big_ carriers as part of a scheme to switch from a military geared to fight World War 3 on the Rhine to a highly mobile force capable of dropping in on people at short notice and spoiling their day. Consequently, three Falklands-vintage carriers will soon be on the market for any dictator on good enough terms with London... So if anyone's planning to buy this carrier, do remember that in a couple of years your neighbour could be planning to buy a whole fleet ;-)

Re:Nice Price

[Ed Avis]

I hear that Sealand makes a profit... would it be possible to stick an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean and stick web servers on it? Perhaps the jurisdictional issues would be more complex than with Sealand.

Less Dense Water: the Bermuda Triangle

[handy_vandal]

How to sink an aircraft carrier:
Make its average density greater than water.

Alternately, make the water less dense:

A British scientist claims to have solved the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle - and says the explanation could fix the world's energy problems.

Geologist Dr Ben Clennell told a conference that the phenomenon where planes, ships and people have vanished was caused by giant gas bubbles.

The gas bubbles resulted from underwater landslides releasing frozen methane gas which had built up over millennia. The methane ice "gas hydrate" was produced by deep-sea bacteria feeding beneath the ocean bed.

The effect of these apple-sized bubbles rising to the surface could be disastrous because the release of a large quantity of methane would reduce the density of seawater.

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