Text | Mr. L
Edit|Laughing Shi Yunyan
Preface
The aircraft carrier can be said to be a symbol of the military strength of the entire country, it is mainly used for maritime operations, and it is also an important carrying platform for fighter jets to take off.
In fact, only a few countries in the world have aircraft carriers, of which the United States has the most, reaching 11, while the mainland has two, namely the Liaoning and Shandong.
Many people are very curious, whether it is a nuclear aircraft carrier of the United States or a conventionally powered aircraft carrier of other countries, their speed is maintained at about 30 knots.
How fast is that? Can't it be faster?
How fast is 1 knot?
When discussing ship speed, you may often hear the word "knot".
However, few people really understand what a "section" is, and how does it apply to aircraft carriers?
In fact, "knot" is a unit that expresses the speed of a ship, and is often used to describe the speed of ocean transportation.
Generally speaking, each "knot" means moving one nautical mile in an hour, that is, an aircraft carrier moving at a speed of 30 knots can travel 30 nautical miles per hour, which is equivalent to about 55.56 kilometers.
The "knot" unit originated in ancient times, and compared with today's navigation technology, the navigation technology at that time was very backward, no matter how experienced the sailors were, but it was very difficult to accurately measure the speed of the ship, because there were no timers and professional equipment to record the voyage.
But the ancients were very clever, and a sailor came up with a solution to this problem.
Sailors drop buoys onto the surface and use the hourglass principle to measure the length of the rope drawn out, thus calculating the speed of the boat.
But how can it be more precise? For this purpose the sailors came up with a method, and they made many small knots in the rope at equal distances, dividing the rope evenly into sections.
In this case, the speed of the boat can be calculated by measuring the number of knobs the rope being pulled in a certain amount of time.
This unit of velocity is known as "knotvelocity" and is used not only for boats, but also to measure things like sea flow velocity and sea breeze speed.
It is worth mentioning that "nautical mile" is a unit of length at sea, which originally referred to the length of one minute of latitude on the meridian of the earth.
But the Earth is elliptical, so the length varies from latitude to latitude.
In order to facilitate the calculation, in the early 50s of the 20th century, the international unified recognition of 1852 meters as a standard nautical mile, China also adopted this standard, represented by the symbol "M".
Although modern seagoing vessel velocity instruments have become so advanced that the knot knot method of recording speed is no longer used, knots as a unit are still retained.
The speed of aircraft carriers in China, the United States and Russia
China's Liaoning ship
This is the first large-tonnage surface ship independently designed and manufactured by China, with a displacement of 60,000 tons.
The ship is equipped with a number of J-15 carrier-based aircraft and other auxiliary aircraft, which can undertake air strike missions of a certain scale.
The Liaoning uses steam turbines as power plants and is equipped with 4 steam turbines.
These advanced power plants allow the Liaoning to reach a maximum speed of 32 knots, which is equivalent to nearly 60 kilometers per hour.
Taking into account the complicated sea conditions of the actual voyage, the regular cruising speed of the Liaoning is maintained at about 30 knots, which can fully meet the operational needs.
Nimitz-class aircraft carriers of the United States
As the largest and most advanced aircraft carrier in the world, the Nimitz-class has an extremely powerful power system, including two nuclear reactors with a power of up to 130,000 horsepower each, and four sets of corresponding steam turbines.
This power configuration allows the Nimitz class to reach a maximum speed of around 30 knots.
In comparison, the regular cruising speed of the Nimitz class is slightly lower, around 28-29 knots, but this is already excellent for such a massive hull.
The Nimitz-class also has a variety of advanced devices such as electromagnetic catapults, and its overall combat capability can be called world-class.
Russia's aircraft carrier Kuznetsov
As the only aircraft carrier in active service in the Russian Navy, the Kuznetsov uses 8 high-temperature and high-pressure boilers and 4 steam turbines to provide it with strong power.
After renovation and upgrading, this old aircraft carrier can now achieve a high-speed voyage of 29 knots in a short time, and even reach a maximum of 30 knots under certain circumstances.
However, given its long service life and frequent maintenance needs, the Kuznetsov is expected to have a regular cruise speed of around 28 knots.
But for an aircraft carrier that has been in service for nearly 30 years, its speed performance is also acceptable.
After reading the above content, many friends are curious, why do aircraft carriers generally have a maximum speed of 30 knots?
Why the aircraft carrier has a maximum speed of thirty knots
For a long time, aircraft carriers, as the core strength of ocean warships, have always been one of the focuses of attention of various countries in terms of combat performance and work efficiency.
The speed of an aircraft carrier is not always better, in fact, too high a speed can cause a series of problems for an aircraft carrier.
Why does the maximum speed of aircraft carriers in many countries around the world generally not exceed 30 knots?
From a physical point of view, seawater is a very viscous medium that causes a lot of drag on the aircraft carrier as it travels.
This resistance is known as wave resistance, and it increases exponentially as the speed of the ship increases.
According to research, when the speed of the ship exceeds 30 knots, the proportion of wave resistance in the total resistance can reach more than half.
At this time, if you want to further increase the speed, you not only need to configure a more powerful engine, but also need to consume several times the fuel, but the speed can be increased very limited, only about 3-5 knots, which can be said to be half the effort.
As a type of warship, the main task of an aircraft carrier is not to compete for speed, but to achieve stable combat effectiveness.
For example, for conventionally powered and nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the purpose is to take off and land carrier-based aircraft, and there is no need to chase at sea.
Therefore, the blind pursuit of high speed will not improve the combat performance, but will occupy the hull space and affect the layout of other equipment.
Modern naval warfare emphasizes multi-arm joint operations, and a single fast warship alone cannot determine victory or defeat.
The speed of 30 knots not only ensures the cruising efficiency of the aircraft carrier, but also allows it to cooperate in formation.
Considering the constraints of strategic needs and technical conditions, the current aircraft carriers of most countries do not adopt supersonic design, which is one of the important reasons why their maximum speed cannot exceed 30 knots.
In fact, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are extremely difficult to build and expensive to maintain, making them difficult to be widely used.
When the aircraft carrier is maintained at a speed of 30 knots, it can not only meet the needs of fighter take-off, but also save fuel to the greatest extent and maximize economic benefits.
Based on the above reasons, the international community widely agrees that it is the most reasonable choice to set the cruising speed of the aircraft carrier below 30 knots.