USS Kitty Hawk - last shot at a Super Carrier museum

[OVERKILL]

And it flopped

Sale of Last Conventional Supercarriers Deals Final Blow To Museum Hopes - USNI News

Both the Kitty Hawk and John F. Kennedy, of the Kitty Hawk class, were the last remaining conventional diesel powered carriers produced for the US Navy. The Enterprise and her successors are all nuclear powered and there is considerable disassembly required to remove the nuclear reactors from the hulls, which makes them ill suited (and extremely expensive if undertaken) to turn them into museums, which is likely why there will never be one.

The Veterans group for those that served on the USS Kitty Hawk raised $5 million dollars to secure the vessel as the only Super Carrier museum but their efforts were thwarted by the Navy, who denied the alternation of the ship's fate from that other than scrap:

The chances of the decommissioned aircraft carrier becoming a museum were already dashed in 2018, when Melka received a letter from the Navy saying that the ship was never destined to be a museum. It was always headed for the scrapyard.

She was officially sent to be scrapped in 2022:
Kitty Hawk: US aircraft carrier, site of a 1972 race riot at sea, on way to scrapyard | CNN

Now, I at least understand why Enterprise was not a good candidate for a museum, with its 8 reactors making it a huge challenge to repurpose, but the Kitty Hawk and John F. Kennedy not being permitted, despite funds being raised, seems like a giant slap in the face of the men and women who served on, and then endeavoured to preserve these incredible feats of engineering that they became so close with.

@Astro14 any thoughts on this?

 

[Malo83]

Same goes for the USS Ranger, NAVY decided to scrap her. made 2 WestPacs on her the last, Desert Storm.

USS Ranger – Museum Ship or Razor Blades?

As her sister ship USS Saratoga slowly makes her way to the scrap heap, USS Ranger (CV-61) sadly awaits the same fate. Launched in 1957, the Ranger was one of four new Forrestal-class super-carrier…

shipwreckology.com

 

[ripcord]

That's a heck of a lot of razor blades.

I can see why a nuclear powered ship wouldn't be a great candidate, but too bad about the Kitty Hawk. Perhaps the navy thought there was too much sensitive info still involved?

 

[Rand]

That's a heck of a lot of razor blades.

I can see why a nuclear powered ship wouldn't be a great candidate, but too bad about the Kitty Hawk. Perhaps the navy thought there was too much sensitive info still involved?

Well it was launched in 1960 but it still might be better than some other countries carriers.... But I can hardly believe that to be fact.

 

[MSCH]

Well it was launched in 1960 but it still might be better than some other countries carriers.... But I can hardly believe that to be fact.

what other country's equipment would you be talking about?

China has a refurbed Russian POS, might be building one of their own.. the RN has those ramp type carriers, do the French still have a carrier? Anyway, I think we are sort of it, when it comes to CV class boats.

 

[y_p_w]

what other country's equipment would you be talking about?

China has a refurbed Russian POS, might be building one of their own.. the RN has those ramp type carriers, do the French still have a carrier? Anyway, I think we are sort of it, when it comes to CV class boats.

China is working on a carrier with EMALS. Their previous two are an old Soviet era ski-jump carrier that wasn't finished by Russia, and a Chinese copy of that. I suspect they'll have quite a bit of teething pains and possibly a few lost lives testing their EMALS system out.

 

[twouvakind]

 

[Donald]

I guess this is not about MIG welding?

 

[pbm]

I'm sure the Kitty Hawk was worth more than a dollar as scrap.....

 

[97prizm]

And it flopped

View attachment 179052

Sale of Last Conventional Supercarriers Deals Final Blow To Museum Hopes - USNI News

Both the Kitty Hawk and John F. Kennedy, of the Kitty Hawk class, were the last remaining conventional diesel powered carriers produced for the US Navy. The Enterprise and her successors are all nuclear powered and there is considerable disassembly required to remove the nuclear reactors from the hulls, which makes them ill suited (and extremely expensive if undertaken) to turn them into museums, which is likely why there will never be one.

The Veterans group for those that served on the USS Kitty Hawk raised $5 million dollars to secure the vessel as the only Super Carrier museum but their efforts were thwarted by the Navy, who denied the alternation of the ship's fate from that other than scrap:


She was officially sent to be scrapped in 2022:
Kitty Hawk: US aircraft carrier, site of a 1972 race riot at sea, on way to scrapyard | CNN

Now, I at least understand why Enterprise was not a good candidate for a museum, with its 8 reactors making it a huge challenge to repurpose, but the Kitty Hawk and John F. Kennedy not being permitted, despite funds being raised, seems like a giant slap in the face of the men and women who served on, and then endeavoured to preserve these incredible feats of engineering that they became so close with.

@Astro14 any thoughts on this?

If turned into a museum, what are the yearly operating expenses? I know that super carriers are expensive to maintain. It seems odd that if Money was raised the Navy wouldn't have taken it as the last super carrier that was scrapped the Navy had to pay.