Welcome back to the another video for a feature on the organized chaos of aircraft carrier operations, both on the flight deck and the hangar where aircraft are stored and maintained. I made two cruises on a carrier. The hanger deck was not used for parking aircraft that were being used in flight ops.
It was mostly aircraft that were down for maintenance or inspections. Sometimes cargo aircraft like the C-2 would be taken down to unload. Most airworthy aircraft were kept on the flight deck. Construction began on 11 August 2005, when Northrop Grumman held a ceremonial steel cut for a 15-ton plate that forms part of a side shell unit of the carrier. The keel of Gerald R. Ford was laid down on 13 November 2009. She was christened on 9 November 2013. Gerald R. Ford entered the fleet replacing the decommissioned USS Enterprise (CVN-65), which ended her 51 years of active service in December 2012. Originally scheduled for delivery in 2015, Gerald R. Ford was delivered to the Navy on 31 May 2017 and formally commissioned by President Donald Trump on 22 July 2017.
The Navy announced that the carrier will sail on her first deployment sometime during 2022. As of 2017, she is the world’s largest aircraft carrier, and the largest warship ever constructed in terms of displacement.