Have you ever imagined what carrier-based opportunities would look like if aircraft carriers became super-huge? Ever thought that they could take off and land on an aircraft carrier like an aircraft on land, without the help of an ejection and blocking station? Let's embark on this creative journey of discovery together! Suppose a huge aircraft carrier, its tonnage reaches a staggering 500,000 tons! By comparison, the world's largest cruise ship, the Knock Nevis, has a tonnage of only 820,000 tons when fully loaded, while the maximum tonnage of a modern aircraft carrier does not exceed 120,000 tons. This supercarrier is so large that it can accommodate more aircraft and heavier carrier-based aircraft.
However, it will not be easy to build such a supercarrier. First of all, we need to face the issue of strength. Military ships must be able to withstand high-intensity blows and high strength, which not only requires extremely high standards of special steel, but also requires special reinforcement of the entire hull. The weight of these reinforcing elements will increase, which will lead to a significant increase in the weight of the aircraft carrier's hull. As the aircraft carrier grows in size, its weight rises exponentially, which is a great challenge to the stability and maneuverability of the hull. In addition to this, we also need to consider the speed requirements. Civilian ships rarely move at full speed, and generally travel at the most economical speed.
However, the maximum speed of an aircraft carrier is a very important practical indicator, which directly affects combat effectiveness. If the aircraft carrier is not able to reach this maximum speed indicator, then it may be ridiculed and even affect combat effectiveness. As the hull becomes larger, the influence of wind and waves also increases, which leads to an exponential increase in the torsion and pulling forces of the aircraft carrier. In this way, it is difficult to ensure the speed of the aircraft carrier, which is not a problem that can be solved by simply increasing the power, but a complex problem of fluid mechanics.
So, is such a supercarrier really practical? The answer is: not necessarily. A 500,000-ton aircraft carrier may not be as practical as five 100,000-ton carriers. First of all, the cost of building and maintaining such a supercarrier will be very staggering. Secondly, its operation and maintenance also require a lot of resources and manpower. More importantly, such an aircraft carrier can easily become a target for enemy attacks in combat because it is too large and conspicuous. In contrast, five 100,000-ton aircraft carriers are more flexible, easier to distract the enemy, and easier to defend themselves. To sum up, while it may sound appealing to build an aircraft carrier to be super huge, it is actually not feasible. In the real world, we need to face various technical and operational constraints. And in this creative journey of discovery, we can also learn a lot about designing and building ships. So, although we can't build a 500,000-ton supercarrier, this does not hinder our enthusiasm for imagining and exploring the future.