Equipment in Bow Bulb of Nimitz Class Carrier.

they were originally used to make the ship faster and change the wave pattern.

under construction in

That everyone already knows.

Something the size of a bow bulb in the picture has at least two to three decks of empty space that, if left empty, will unbalance the buoyancy of the ship. That space is too valuable in a cramped a/ carrier to be filled with ballast. Speculations of its use anyone?

Also none of the models of USN a/carriers include a bow bulb although anyone familiar with large hulls assumes that there is one. Its the size of it that surprised me.

Very often the hydrodynamic benefit more than justifies the weight penalty, and the bouyancy of the area is taken into account when the ship is designed. Some ships carry their sonar in that general area, but it's not optimal given the massive flow noise of the bow wave at any speed above dead slow, not to mention that an aircraft carrier has no business getting near submarines. That's what the destroyers are for. I'd say that it's dead space. There's no point putting any delicate machinery in there, and accomodation spaces in the bow are extremel uncomfortable. At minimum it may be stowage space for items that don't mind being tossed up and down through a 5 metre arc whenever the ship is in a seaway.

Sounds like a great place for the brig.....

Regards, John Braungart

PaPa Peng wrote:>The picture of a supercarrier under construction in

I think it only looks big because near to everything just shy of north of the hangar deck has yet to be fitted.

If you want to swab the decks all the time, be my guest.

In the smaller ships I worked on in the shipyard, it was a sonar dome, with hundreds of transducers. It was water filled when the ship was in the water, & was pressure tested in drydock. It was mostly made of rubber. Of course, this could be something completely different.

One last kick on the tire. After a lot of thought I think the best explanation for the large sized bow bulb would be to keep the flight deck horizontal. The bulb will be sized to the normal CVB cruising speed somewhere in the region of 17 to 20 knots. The nuclear powered Supercarrier may be be able to maintain high speed in the region of 30 knots and over. But for the the accompanying vessels that speed would exhaust their fuel quickly as well as prematurely wear out their mechanicals. But in battle situations the S/carrier will probably run at the higher speed. I suspect this will lift the bow (or dig in?) end. Filling/adjusting the bow bulb with water ballast will trim the ship's bow down again to a horizontal flight deck. The large size of the bow bulb is to provide the mass and inertia to dampen oscillations in vertical trim.

hey rufe, what happened with the tunes? i could mail a disc....

Too complicated, too much to break, too much added weight, complexity and cost. Ships are designed to ride on the ragged edge of strength-to-weight as it is. Putting that much weight that far forward is just asking for the ship to hog.

Didn't work out on that group - it has a seriously low retention time from what I can see via my ISP.

But I did grab the the one I was after from online sources - I got a ton of realtime recording capability...

ok. long as you're happy.

....well, on some days less than others...but overall...

yeah, we relate. my turn to have health issues now. can you say hernia?

Dang...and I'm getting pretty good at doing my injections - I don't think I've had one bleed on me in the last six. That's sort of scary...it's still not a natural act.

My eyes have been giving me fits...I need new glasses but I'm trying to hold out until my next scheduled. At least I *hope* that's all I need.

go get them looked at. don't screw around with eyes. there are things out there that can cost you your sight almost overnight. my bud had irratations in his right eye and didn't get it checked. it stopped working and still doesn't. yes, i'm trying to frighten you. bad kitty litter can cause blindness. some bacteria that lives on cat scat.

I already have my iritis to control...that feels like having a nail driven into your eye when it flares - the iris gets stick to the lens and every time the light changes and my pupil tries to open or close...SPIKE! I have both drops and the Humira injections controlling that...so yeah, I look after my eyeballs!

No pain right now, just strain. I have an astigmatism correction, but no magnification...just need to get things back into round. I can rest my eyes by taking my glasses off, but then it's harder to read - I get edge blur.

sounds familiar. i should have figured you be on top of it. but i'm glad to hear it.