Originally Posted by BEagle
Below the flight deck level of one of those floating leviathans of the US Navy is hardly a challenge; below the deck level of one the the RN's little armoured rowing boats certainly would be though!
Not wishing to pick on BEagle, but, being bored tonight, I looked into the flight deck height of USS Ranger (CV-61) in the photo, and for comparison, the same measurement of an Invincible class boat.
Ranger is a Forrestal class boat, and has a flight deck height above the waterline of 61 feet. After 15 minutes of Googling various combinations of "Invincible, flight deck, and height", I got zip. However, I don't see it being much less than 50 feet, if that low. I vaguely remember as a boy on a boat trip round Pompey harbour, seeing the then new Invincible, and it seemed very tall, even in comparison with the Bulwark moored out in the harbour.
Google also revealed that the BUFF is 40ft 8 inches in height. Minus say 8 ft for undercarriage, and that makes it just over 30 ft tall in flight. With a wingspan of 185 feet, that flyby seems dodgy as hell!
Note to self: get out more!