Friday funny: Aircraft carriers
by Sam Roggeveen
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18 January 2008 3:12PM
If you thought the Australian aircraft carrier debate died with the scrapping of HMAS Melbourne in 1982, you haven't seen the design for the Navy's recently-ordered amphibious ships. That ramp you see at the front of the flight-deck is known as a 'ski-jump', and is designed for the sole purpose of launching short-take off jets like the Harrier or the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter. At present, there are no plans to operate any aircraft other than helicopters from these 230 metre-long ships. But it was considered too expensive to remove the ramp from the ship design, which does leave an opening for the return of fixed-wing carrier aviation to the RAN. Those opposed to such a move might try to win the argument through reason and deduction and logic. If that fails, they could try mockery:
