The U.S.S. Harry Truman
Not too long ago, I went on a field trip with my boy scout troop to the U.S.S. Harry Truman. Here is what I learned.The Truman was commisioned on July 25, 1998.
It is a U.S Aircraft Carrier. It carries many kinds of aircraft, including hornets, greyhounds, prowlers hawkeyes, and seahawks, and a bunch of helicopters. When our scout troop went, we were lucky to be able to see all of the planes actually on it. When it docks in America all of the planes go off to their seperate bases. There are no US bases in the UAE, so they all stay on board. It's height is 2 stories from waterline to mast, it is as long as the Empire State building is tall, and the width of the flight deck is 251ft at widest. It's propulsion comes from two nuclear reactors. The planes are stored below deck. To move the planes around there are 4 plane elevators, and 4 catapults to launch the planes. It can launch the planes extreamly fast at a short
distance. We also got to go see the weegie board (I think that's how you spell it :-). A little metal board where the keep track of all the planes below the flight deck. They put different color and shape planes for different squadrons and types of plane. They use tacks of different colors, jacks and other items to show what that plane is doing - if it is being moved, is broken, is being repaired, etc. They move the planes on the weegie board and then move the real ones. Check out this site for a video of a real launch:
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