After floating out onto the water for the first time on the 17th July 2014, the HMS Queen Elizabeth is being built on the Rosyth Docks as we speak. At 72,000 tons and 932 feet long, this Royal Navy aircraft carrier is taller than Nelson’s Column and much wider than the M25 at its widest point.
HMS Queen Elizabeth will have 679 permanent crew with a capacity for 1,600 crew members when fully operational. It is a massive piece of engineering, with 2,000 miles of cable and 1,200 miles of fibre optic cables running through the ship. It also has a water treatment plant on board which will produce more than 500 tons of fresh water daily from seawater. Registered to set sail by 2020, the HMS Queen Elizabeth has two bronze propellors, each 22ft in diameter and weighing 33 tons, pushing her to a top speed of 30mph. A special phone app has even been developed to stop workers getting lost which prevents a loss of £1.25 million through wasted man hours!
The HMS Queen Elizabeth will be utilised by all three sectors of the UK Armed Forces and will be versatile enough to be used for operations ranging from supporting war efforts, to providing humanitarian aid and disaster relief.
Keep up-to-date on news of the HMS Queen Elizabeth’s launch through our blog. Our official ship crest and cap tally for the HMS Queen Elizabeth is available from Wyedean Stores now
