They might be the undisputed titans of the sea, but it’s difficult to tell just how ginormous aircraft carriers are unless you’re standing right next to one. Or, in the case of the first picture below, peering down at a Nimitz-class supercarrier from a helicopter.
Hope you aren’t afraid of heights
A winch operation – lowering troops onto the ship via helicopter – made for one heck of a shot. If you look closely enough, you can spot the dangling shipmen. Not visible? The Hamilton casters that help maneuver airplanes. Source: Imgur
Downtown takeover
The open sea doesn’t do much for perspective. But when a 1,092-foot supercarrier brushes up next to a city (Norfolk, Virginia), you get the picture. We did the math: That’s about four city blocks. Source: Imgur
Too big to dock
The USS Theodore Roosevelt is longer than the Chrysler Building is tall, which meant that this floating city couldn’t quite squeeze into the Royal Navy’s Portsmouth shipyard in England. Source: Daily Mail
Bonus: one-in-a-million shot
Forget about scale, this shot is majestic. A dual Chilean Air Force/U.S. Naval operation gave this photographer the shot of a lifetime as multinational jet fighters flew in formation by the USS George Washington. Source: Gizmodo