Each ship displaces roughly 100,000 tons, giving the ten-ship class more than a million tons of carrier capacity. The long hull supports the flight deck’s repeated landing and takeoff loads, while the broad overhang provides working area without requiring equal waterline beam. Two Westinghouse A4W reactors feed four turbines and shafts rated at 260,000 shaft horsepower. Published figures give a speed above 30 knots and reactor-fuel endurance of 20 to 25 years, although food and crew still limit continuous operations. The combined ship and air-wing complement reaches about 5,000 to 5,200 people, making each carrier a large mobile aviation institution.
Chapter · 38:02-48:17
The scale and machinery behind a 100,000-ton carrier
Dimensions, flight-deck structure, A4W reactors, four shafts, and a crew of roughly 5,000 show how the carrier turns size into aviation capacity.