On maximum afterburner, where fuel is injected into the engines downstream of the turbines creating jets of flame from the exhaust, a Hornet’s two engines generate 20,700 pounds of thrust each and every launch from the carrier’s flight deck feels and sounds like a mini volcanic eruption.

Clouds of steam from the catapult enhances the effect as each sleek fighter plane is flung on its gravity defying 100-metre journey down the deck and into the air.

Knowing there are another 64 of these lethal killing machines on board the 100,000 tonne American flat top would give pause to even the most daring adversary.

After one flight departs another lands and their nose cones dip as if taking a bow as one of four heavy steel cables snares its tail hook to bring the aircraft to a rapid, shuddering halt.

There are few weapons that an aircraft carrier battle group fears and apart from stealthy submarines and so far unproven sea skimming supersonic missiles, nothing can intimidate these gargantuan behemoths.

If war is politics by other means then these brutes would surely dictate the ends.

Just in case though the Combat Defense Center deep inside the carrier’s armoured steel hull uses powerful sensors to monitor every possible threat within hundreds of kilometres of the huge ship. In the flight control centre the deck controller uses colour-coded models on a replica flight deck to monitor, in real time, the location of every aircraft outside his panoramic windows.

Some 220 of the 5200 people currently living on the ship man the flight deck as fighter jets, propeller driven transport and spy planes and helicopters are launched and retrieved every few minutes.

Each member of the deck staff wears one of seven coloured vests to designate their roles in the carefully choreographed and highly dangerous world of carrier air wing operations.

Purple means refueller, blue is a plane handler, green indicates a catapult handler, maintenance crew and cargo handler, yellow is for aircraft handling officers and plane handlers (the people who send the jets on their way), red is for ordnance handlers, brown for air wing plane officers and white is quality control, safety and medical personnel.

Landing on a carrier in a Grumman C-12 Greyhound COD (carrier on-board delivery) aircraft is an exhilarating experience.

The windowless, propeller driven mini cargo plane can carry 22 passengers, who are blissfully unaware of when they will hit the deck. Going from 200km/hr to zero in less than 100 metres, or about 2.7 seconds, can provide a stark reminder of that morning’s breakfast.

Taking off is an altogether different sensation as the aircraft’s turboprop engines scream to fever pitch before the steam catapult flings the plane forward and the rear facing passenger’s slam into their four point harness for a bone jarring two second thrill ride.

This article from our 2013 archives is an edited version of an Ian McPhedran report on a previous USS George Washington visit.