Fast and the Furious: Pacific Drift

In the last post, Ice gave you a size comparison of an aircraft carrier to a B-52 Stratofortress. Pretty big, right?

Now, imagine this: a high speed bank.

Typically, these awe-inspiring turns are performed as "rudder checks" during post-refit sea trials/shakedown cruises. Imagine a mass, longer than the Empire State building's height, doing a bank like that, at sea, at such an angle. The above pictures are of the USS Nimitz and the USS Harry S. Truman conducting those maneuvers. 

Awesome, isn't it?

Mav out.

Woah that's big.

That's what she said! Haha, sorry, couldn't resist.

For those of you who've never been near a supercarrier before, you're probably wondering... is it really that big? Or are the pictures taken at angles or from a crazy perspective to make them look that way? 

Well, the above is a pretty cool picture I found a while ago of a B-52 Stratofortress doing a low pass near the USS Ranger, circa 1990. There were 2 B-52s in the vicinity of the carrier, during a military exercise. The pilots asked the carrier air boss if they could perform a fly-by and were granted the approval. When the BUFFs were 9 km out, the observers on the carrier's island still couldn't see the big grey birds. Till they got closer. Then only were they able to make out the shape of these massive planes, right above the water; their engines kicking back a spray from the ocean. 

If you've ever been up close to a B-52 at an air show, you'll know it's a pretty big plane. Now, look at the picture. Woah. Right?