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

Build your own aircraft carrier...

[TheMidget]

... and whack those crazy Merkins and their DMCA laws with it! We want a free Europe!!!!

Frist Psot?

build or buy ?

[Spacelord]

For a second I thought it said *build* your own aircraft carrier .... now that would have been a feat :)

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 ;-)

Put that baby on eBay !!!

[Anonymous Coward]

No reserve, I'll give em' $50 bucks. Buyer pays shipping

Bring idea!

[chrisgeleven]

Corporations this is your chance to become a world power by buying your very own aircraft carrier! Of course you have to fund the personnel to run the carrier and then get some fighter jets but imagine the countries you can frighten into accepting your tyrannical contracts!

Perfect!

[Judg3]

This goes along with my plans.
1. Change name ti L. Bob Rife
2. Create cable TV monopoly
3. Start own religion
4. Work on meta-virus
5. Buy aircraft carrier
6. Get residents of 3rd world country to do my bidding!

Sweet!

Re:Perfect!

[bolind]

This goes along with my plans.
1. Change name ti L. Bob Rife
2. Create cable TV monopoly
3. Start own religion
4. Work on meta-virus
5. Buy aircraft carrier
6. Get residents of 3rd world country to do my bidding!


To the people not getting the above reference, go read Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash", in were a decommissioned aircraft carrier is the center of "The Raft", a shitload of floating things, well, floating around, with "refus" (refugees), waiting to get close enough to North America to get ashore to start a new life.

Slow day?

[Anonymous Coward]

This article is proof that Saturday is always slow at the Slashdot office

Nice Price

[jspoon]

$4.5 million sounds like a steal. It probably costs more than that to keep it in port for a year, let alone what it would actually cost to operate.

Re:Nice Price

[Chris Mattern]

Which is why she's so cheap, of course. Massive operating costs make her a tough sell; there's probably nobody out there who will regard her as being worth the price it will take to run her. She's being sold for her scrap value, sad to say. Whoever buys her will undoubtedly break her up and sell the pieces.

Chris Mattern

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.

offtopic, i know...

[xao gypsie]

...but man, she gets around more than my ex-girlfriend...

xao

Re:offtopic, i know...

[fobbman]

...and carries about as much seamen...

Sorry dude, she was my ex-girlfriend, too.

I'm in!

[fadeaway]

If 15,000 of us put in $300, we could get this baby.

Oh, the LAN parties we could have on the SS /.!

Re:I'm in!

[aardwolf204]

Have you ever been to a LAN party? Every time I go to one of these "massive lanning events" (200+ gamers) I'm stuck next to leety mc'leet's clan of anti-deoderant counter-strikers. Now throw 15,000 of these guys in a boat and add some sea sickness and you've got a biohazard.

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.

$4.5 million USD!

[2nd Post!]

So a complement of 1.300, each paying $400 a month rent...

That's easily a half million rent a month! So living aboard, for a year, would generate $6 million, which covers the cost of upkeep and purchase in 2 years, and profitable in 3!

Re:$4.5 million USD!

[Timesprout]

And anyone who slacks on the rent gets shot off the catapult

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)

Someone call Larry Ellison!

[Spacelord]

Someone call Larry Ellison! Would make a great addition to his MiG fighter jet.

weapon of mass destruction

[koi88]

Maybe George W. should buy it and write "Saddamz aircraft carria" on it. That should convince the few unpatriotic people who still doubt the justification for attacking Iraq.

Apparently

[Timesprout]

De-Commissioned November 2001, Sold to Private concerns 2002, Sale did not complete.

Bin Laden gets sea sick

Linux?

[gspr]

Does she run Linux?

Cool, but...

[Scalli0n]

As always, I must present the downside:

1. Do you know how to drive an aircraft carrier? I don't think it has merely a gas/brake/steering wheel.
2. Which country was going to let you bring that monstrosity into their port again...?
3. Don't these things require a crew of 1000's? Or at least 100 people I'd imagine, more if something goes wrong!
4. It costs me $20 to fill my car up at the gas station...dear god, I don't even want to think of this!!!

But beyond that, a cool purchase to be sure. It would be even funnier if it were on ebay.

Aircraft carrier HOWTOs

[Anonymous Coward]

How to build an aircraft carrier:

1. Acquire necessary parts and materials.
2. Assemble.

How to turn any boat into an aircraft carrier:

1. Place aircraft on boat.

How to sink an aircraft carrier:

1. Make its average density greater than water.

Re:Only one small problem...

[Phoenix]

No remotely modern aircraft is capable to land on it?

Wanna bet?

There is one aircraft that not only can take off and land on it, -but- is also the only aircraft that is permitted to take off and land while *any* aircraft carrier is docked in port.

Harrier Jump Jets are reasonably modern as I recall.

With the angled ramp as it is (or even perhaps angled a little bit more) the AV8-B would be able to take off with a minimal amount of fuel and without using the Catapults. If I'm not too terribly mistaken the British are doing that for thier light carrier fleet - harriers included.

Landings would be no problem - at least no more problem than a normal Carrier Landing (controled crash anyone?)

Phoenix

You think...

[dentar]

If I bought that aircraft carrier, then flew in on it dressed in a flight suit with the crotch all puffed up, people might be tricked into thinking -I- was a hero too?

Thought not.

I'd go for something a little more fuel efficient

[blair1q]

Capacity: 3,196 Tons ...
Endurance: 12,000 Nautical miles @ 14 Knots, 6,200 Nautical Miles @ 25 Knots

So that's roughtly 4 nm/ton city, 2 highway.

Great for running around town, but where would you park it?

Bring good things to life

[baldass_newbie]

Is there a corporation rich enough to become a "super power"?

GE accounts for 1% of the US GDP and it's about the biggest F'ing company in the world (in terms of dollars and diversity) AND they make weapons systems.
So, I'd say 'No'.

Of course, they could kick France's ass, but then, so did Greenpeace.

Easier way

[Imperator]

Get your former CEO elected as Vice President of the United States.

Re:Only one small problem...

[EmagGeek]

There are actually two modern fighters that could easily land and take off. One is the Harrier as you mentioned. The other is the Joint Strike Fighter, which also has vertical T/O and landing capability...

Let's get an aircraft carrier!

[Tumbleweed]

"It's only a model."

"Shhh!"

"What are we going to do today, Brain?"

[Tumbleweed]

"The same thing we do every day, Pinky, try to take over the world."

Buy it for Canada!

[farrellj]

We haven't had a carrier since the Bonaventure!!!! Please donate and help us out!

ttyl
Farrell

$4,500,000, 6 million Slashdot users - chip in!

[TekPolitik]

One Aircraft Carrier: $4,500,000.
Slashdot registered users: 6,000,000.
Online geek community with own aircraft carrier: Priceless.

Re:Nice Price (little footnote)

[T-Ranger]

Both of the people who I have talked to who served abord Bonni' mentioned that it seemed to rust away while you watched when it was in service.

For whatever reason, durring construction its hull sat around for something like 5 years for budgetarty reasons. At least 2 or 3 of its sister hulls diddnt get out of the construction phase.

Can I take it for a test drive?

[gilesjuk]

Well I want to see if it runs well :)

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.

Search Google

Then the /. headline...

[SunPin]

Ask Slashdot: A few months ago, we discussed how to buy an aircraft carrier. After a hectic fundraising bid, me and all my "friends" were able to purchase the Brazilian sea whore through PayPal. I thought "Brazilian Sea Whore" was such a rad name that we rechristened it with the name. Unfortunately, now there's a problem. We ran out of food and the situation makes Lord of the Flies look like a comedy. A portion of the crew has broken off into a Klingon language faction and is proposing mutiny. We've descended into cannibalism but we're not sure how to decide who dies first in a fair way for everybody. So my question is this: what do you think about using /. ID numbers in descending order as a valid way of choosing who gets cooked next? While some of the lower ID numbers are pretty fat and would last for weeks, it's probably not a good idea as they would make ideal emergency rations. Not like we don't have an emergency already...