Aircraft Carrier Trivia Quiz With Answers

Trivia quiz questions with answers about Aircraft Carriers.

Aircraft Carrier Trivia Quiz Questions

What is a Gerald R. Ford class aircraft carrier?
A: The Gerald R. Ford class is a class of aircraft carrier being built to replace the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) and eventually the United States Navy's existing Nimitz-class carriers, beginning with the delivery of USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78).

The new vessels have a hull similar to the Nimitz carriers, but introduce what?
A: New technologies since developed such as the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, as well as other designs.

Compared to the Nimitz-class carrier, Automation, will allow how much smaller of a crew?
A: Several hundred fewer than the Nimitz-class carrier.

The new carriers will have what kind of updated missile?
A: RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow.

They will have electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) in place of what?
A: A traditional steam catapult for launching aircraft.

The Gerald R Ford Class ships will have a new nuclear reactor design for what?
A: Greater power generation.

It will have stealth features to reduce what?
A: Radar cross-section.

They will have the ability to carry up to how many aircraft?
A: 90.

The US Navy aims to use modern equipment and extensive automation to reduce what?
A: The crew size and the total cost of future aircraft carriers.

The biggest visible difference from earlier supercarriers will be what?
A: The more aft location of the island (superstructure).

Ships of the Gerald R. Ford class are intended to sustain how many sorties per day for 30-plus days?
A: 160.

They will have a surge capability of what?
A: 270 sorties per day.

One Major design change includes a larger what?
A: Flight deck.

They have a new propulsion plant design that requires fewer what?
A: People to operate and maintain, and a new, smaller island that has been pushed aft.

Technological advances in electromagnetics have led to the development of what?
A: An Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and an Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG).

An integrated warfare system, the Ship Self-Defense System (SSDS), has been developed to do what?
A: To allow the ship to more easily take on new missions.

The new Dual Band Radar (DBR) combines what?
A: S-band and X-band radar.

Flight deck changes support the requirements for a higher what?
A: Sortie rate, around 160 a day with surges to 270.

Changes to the flight deck are the most what?
A: Visible differences between the Nimitz and Gerald R. Ford classes.

Several sections have been altered to improve what?
A: Aircraft handling, storage, and flow, all in the service of increasing the sortie rate.

Catapult No. 4 on the Nimitz class cannot launch fully loaded aircraft because of what?
A: A deficiency of wing clearance along the edge of the flight deck.

The new ships will have no catapult-specific restrictions on what?
A: Launching aircraft, but still retains four catapults, two bow and two waist.

The number of aircraft lifts from hangar deck to flight deck level was what?
A: Reduced from four to three.

Shifting the island back creates deck space for what?
A: A centralized rearming and refueling location.

This reduces the number of times that an aircraft will have to be what?
A: Moved after landing before it can be relaunched.

Fewer aircraft movements require, what?
A: Fewer deck hands to accomplish them, reducing the size of the ship's crew and increasing sortie rate.

As well, the movement of weapons from storage and assembly to the aircraft on the flight deck has been what?
A: Streamlined and accelerated.

Ordnance will be moved to the centralized rearming location via relocated what?
A: Higher-capacity weapons elevators that use linear motors.

The new path that ordnance follows does not cross any areas of what?
A: Aircraft movement, thereby reducing traffic problems in the hangars and on the flight deck.

According to Rear Admiral Dennis M. Dwyer, these changes will make it hypothetically possible to rearm the airplanes in what?
A: "minutes instead of hours".

The new Bechtel A1B reactor for the Gerald R. Ford-class is smaller and simpler, requires fewer crew, and yet is what?
A: Far more powerful than the Nimitz-class A4W reactor.

How many reactors will be installed on each Gerald R. Ford-class carrier?
A: Two.

They will produce almost 700 MW which is what?
A: 25% greater than 550 MW of the two A4W.

As the Gerald R. Ford-class is primarily an electric boat; electrical capacity of the reactors was increased by how much?
A: 1.25 times over that of the Nimitz-class.

The propulsion and power plant of the Nimitz-class carriers was designed when?
A: In the 1960s, when onboard technologies did not require the same quantity of electrical power that modern technologies do.

"New technologies added to the Nimitz-class ships have generated increased demands for what?
A: Electricity.

The Gerald R. Ford-class ships retained steam turbines for propulsion, but rather than piping steam from the reactors to power major ship systems directly, it does what?
A: It uses steam to turn four main turbine generators (MTG) to generate electricity for the systems like the new electromagnetic catapults.

Compared to the Nimitz-class reactor, the Gerald R. Ford-class reactor has about what?
A: Half as many valves, piping, major pumps, condensers, and generators.

The steam-generating system uses fewer than how many valves?
A: 200 and it uses only eight pipe sizes.

These improvements lead to simpler construction, reduced maintenance, and lower manpower requirements as well as to a more what?
A: Compact system that requires less space in the ship.

The new power plant requires just one-third the what?
A: Watch standing requirements and a decrease of required maintenance.

A larger power output is a major component to the what?
A: Integrated warfare system.

Engineers took extra steps to ensure that integrating “what” onto a Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier would be possible?
A: Unforeseen technological advances.

The Navy expects the Gerald R. Ford-class will be part of the fleet for how long?
A: 90 years, until the year 2105.

The Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) installed on the Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier is more what?
A: Efficient, smaller, lighter, more powerful, and easier to control.

Increased control means that EMALS will be able to launch what?
A: Both heavier and lighter aircraft than the steam catapult.

Also, the use of a controlled force will reduce the stress on what?
A: Airframes, resulting in less maintenance and a longer lifetime for the aircraft.

Electromagnets are also being used in the new what?
A: Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) system.

The current system relies on “what”, to slow and stop a landing aircraft?
A: Hydraulics.

The current system is unable to capture UAVs without what?
A: Damaging them due to extreme stresses on the airframe.

UAVs do not have the necessary mass to do what?
A: Drive the large hydraulic piston used to trap heavier, manned airplanes.

By using electromagnetics the energy absorption is controlled how?
A: By a turbo-electric engine.

This makes the trap what?
A: Smoother and reduces the shock on airframes.

Another addition to the Gerald R. Ford class is a what?
A: An integrated active electronically scanned array search and tracking radar system.

The dual-band radar (DBR) was being developed for both the Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers and the “what”, being built by Raytheon?
A: Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyers.

The island can be kept smaller by replacing six to ten radar antennas with what?
A: A single six-faced radar.

The three faces dedicated to the X-band radar are responsible for low altitude tracking and radar illumination, while the other three faces are dedicated to what?
A: The S-band responsible for target search and tracking regardless of weather.

"Operating simultaneously over two electromagnetic frequency ranges, the DBR marks the first time this functionality has been achieved using what?
A: Two frequencies coordinated by a single resource manager.

This new system has no moving parts, therefore minimizing what?
A: Maintenance and manning requirements for operation.

The Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR) is a new design surveillance radar that is to be installed in the what?
A: Second Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier, USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), in lieu of the Dual Band radar.

The carrier will be armed with the Raytheon Evolved what?
A: Sea Sparrow missile (ESSM), which defends against high-speed, highly maneuverable anti-ship missiles.