Sorry to register just for this but I finally have had enough of the anti-carrier nonsense being posted here-
I was told by a staff member in a military museum. The first carrier has endless issues about the engines. The second is a massive bath-tub containing rain water. That was this March.
This is utterly amazing, it is truly astonishing that anything like this was said, in march the QE had only been fitted with the first of its MT30 turbines which hadn't even come out of its packaging, yet alone been tested as there would be nothing to test it with as none of the electric motors had been setup (installed only). The engines are set to be tested for the first time later this year once both of the MT30's are in and unwrapped and the ship has been fitted with braked propellers. As for the second being full of rain water that is considerably impressive as it only exists at the moment as bits inside warehouses around the country-
When you see it... forward island under construction at Portsmouth - and feathered friend! | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Those bits of grey scattered around... that's the second carrier.
All of the delays and cost increases in the project so far have come from one source, the government, first in delaying the main gate schedule, then changing the required specifications required at least 3 times. Production should have started around 4 years earlier then it ended up solely due to the government at the time deliberately slowing the project down to save money, an act that eventually cost us around £1 billion more.
Personally I think they should cancel the typhoon, a guy at the aircraft museum told me that the merlin engines were giving them no end of trouble and that the cockpit glass was actually made out of cheese and the pilots couldn't see out!
eaglemmoomin- The trouble the yanks are having with the LCS (or at least the engines the whole project is a running joke) is the shape of the exhaust funnels lets sea water into the turbine itself, on its own the MT30 is by all accounts a insanely reliably and efficient unit. After all despite each of the CVF's weighing as much as all three Invincibles combined each does better mileage.