HMS Queen Elizabeth and the F-35

Let’s take a look at the Royal Navy’s new dynamic duo:  The HMS Queen Elizabeth and the F-35

The HMS Queen Elizabeth is the largest warship ever built for the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy capable of carrying up to 70 aircraft.   Named after the first HMS Queen Elizabeth, which was a World War 1 era Super Dreadnought, she carries the Tudor rose-adorned crest and motto.

Built to replace the Invincible class, which was retired in 2014, the Queen Elizabeth has more than three times the displacement and is  30% longer

Here are some specifications for the HMS Queen Elizabeth:

Displacement:   65,000 tonnes
Length:             284 m (932 ft)
Beam:             39 m (128 ft) waterline  73 m (240 ft) overall
Draught:             11 m (36 ft)
Speed:             32 knots (59 km/h)
Range:             10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km)
Capacity:            1,600
Troops:              250

One of the distinctive features of the Queen Elizabeth are her two island superstructures, one is used for ship operations  and sea navigation while the other is used to conduct  air operations.  Each island serves as a backup for the other to provide redundancy in case of damage.

Unlike most American Carriers The Queen Elizabeth does not have catapults or arrestor wires, meaning she is designed to operate short takeoff/vertical landing or STOVL  aircraft.and helicopters.   The ship was in fact designed to operate the F-35B

In the Fall of 2018 the Queen Elizabeth sailed across the Atlantic to the US Naval Air Station at Patuxent River, where she would undergo initial trials with the F-35B. 

While the F-35B can take off vertically, it saves much more fuel and can extend its range by
using a ski jump system.  This exercise marked the first time an F-35B took off using the ski jump method from a ship.  And while using a ski jump to launch aircraft is nothing new, the
Shipborne rolling vertical landing (SRVL) is.  This  allows the F35 to land with forward speed or about 30 knots of overtake, meaning the F35 can land with fuel and weapons on board.  The Queen Elizabeth and the F35 were the first every ship/aircraft combination ever to achieve this feat.

Let’s take a look at some stats for the F-35

Length:                       51.1 ft (15.6m)
Height:                       14.4 ft (4.4 m)
Wingspan:                  35 ft (11 m)
Maximum Speed:      1,200 mph (Mach 1.6)
Empty weight:            32,161 lbs (14588 kg)
Gross weight:             49,540 lb (22,471 kg)