Thanks for the memory jog re the Trident boats being Roller powered, I had forgotten that. So that leads to an image of the CV hulls being stepped, 4 x Rollers stacked two high; when the hull is on the step - no worries about STOL or Ski Jumps - lots of problems solved - maybe creating a few more!! - but still leaving the F/A 18 the winner and more reduced costs.
As an aside and an example of where leading technology can lead you ;
A few year back I went on board a Trident boat at Faslane, walked along the deck to the large hatch, where to my surprise, the hole in the deck was surrounded by a fence of scaffold tubes to stop anyone falling in, with a wooden builders ladder to climb up, then reverse position and descend down via another longer wooden ladder to get onboard, all secured by ropes.
In the meantime, yes, as usual with Rolls, those engines are magnificent and would be ideal for the CV's with minimal expense in design - or did the last lot sell off the division involved when they got rid of all our nuclear design and manufacturing capability to the rest of the world, before placing requirements for same, out for bidding. (Thank God they hav'nt tried to nationalise and produce our Beer yet - but keep looking, some bright s*d might).
However, and with apologies to Mods for major thread creep, but, if a boat can be carried on a ship - but not a ship on a boat - it'll take a hell of a ship to carry a Trident Sub.
