Свежий панорамный снимок HMS Queen Elizabeth

THIS eye-catching panoramic photograph captures the moment another piece of the giant carrier jigsaw began to slot into place.
In the giant ship hall at BAE Systems’ Portsmouth facility two enormous sections of the hull of HMS Queen Elizabeth are joined.
It took 30 minutes and 26 remote-controlled hydraulic transporters to move a 3,700-tonne segment of the ship across 25 metres of the hall to link up with an already-completed section.
Together they help form Lower Block 02 – at more than 6,000 tonnes it will be nearly one tenth the displacement of the finished carrier and heavier than either a Type 42 destroyer or Type 23 frigate.
Beyond ‘simply’ joining the two enormous sections of Lower Block 02 together, the act of marriage is a hugely complicated affair – there are pipes, cables, ventilation ducts and machinery to connect. A lot of pipes, cables, ventilation ducts and machinery to connect.
Seventy metres long and 18 metres tall, the finished block will feature 8½ kilometres of pipe work (more than five miles if you prefer Imperial measurements) and 260 kilometres (161 miles!) of cable, plus machinery spaces, stores and switchboards, and 85 cabins for 500 members of the ship’s company and air group.
“Bringing together Lower Block 02 marks the beginning of an exciting stage in the block’s life."
"The team will now begin the task of connecting the pipes, cabling, ventilation and machinery which runs throughout the block, before she is transported to Rosyth in April next year,” said Steven Carroll, Queen Elizabeth Class Project Director at BAE Systems’ Surface Ships division.
“As the block takes shape, the sheer size and scale of this engineering project becomes even more apparent.”
As well as this block, shipwrights and engineers in BAE’s Portsmouth halls are about to begin work on Queen Elizabeth’s forward island, which will house the ship’s bridge and control vessel navigation.
The unique design of the ship and her sister Prince of Wales, which has just been laid down, means there will be two islands overlooking the flight deck; the aft island will house Flyco – flying control, from where operations and movements on the flight deck are directed.
Around 10,000 people are involved in the future carrier project at yards, factories and engineering firms around the UK. The finished ships, which enter service in the latter half of the decade, will be the largest ever to fly the White Ensign.