# Pykrete carrier



## a_majoor (14 Apr 2015)

Here is a short article about the proposed aircraft carrier made out of ice. While the project was impractical for many reasons, it should be noted that the test article took 3 summers to melt, and a modern replica (built by the Mythbusters for their TV show) did work. Some large illustrations at link

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/04/churchill-pykrete-carrier-would-have.html



> *Churchill Pykrete carrier would have been three and half times longer than the US Gerald Ford Carrier*
> 
> Winston Churchill had a project to produce a 2.2 million ton pykrete (ice and wood pulp) aircraft carrier that would have been 1200 meters long and 180 meters wide. This would have made it 3.5 times longer than the US Gerald Ford or Nimitz class carriers which are each about 330 meters long.
> 
> ...


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## JSR OP (14 Apr 2015)

Here's a picture of Pyramid Lake where Project Habakkuk was conducted. In 2012, 1 CMBG HQ & Sig Sqn SHQ Tp did a three day PD session in Jasper, and Project Habakkuk was one of the topics we covered.  As you can see, the view there is spectacular!


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## The Bread Guy (14 Apr 2015)

Thucydides said:
			
		

> .... a modern replica (built by the Mythbusters for their TV show) did work ....


Somewhat, anyway ....


> .... In 2009, the Discovery Channel program MythBusters episode 115 tested the properties of pykrete and the myths behind it. First, the program's hosts, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman compared the mechanical properties of common ice, pykrete and a new material specially created for the show, dubbed "super pykrete", using newspapers instead of woodpulp. Both versions of pykrete indeed proved to be much stronger than the chunk of ice, withstanding hundreds of pounds of weight. The super pykrete was much stronger than the original version.
> 
> The MythBusters then built a full-size boat out of the super pykrete, naming it Yesterday's News, and subjected it to real-world conditions. Though the boat managed to float and stay intact at speeds of up to 23 miles per hour (37 km/h), it quickly began to spring leaks as the boat slowly melted. After twenty minutes the boat was deteriorating, and the experiment was ended. The boat lasted another ten minutes while being piloted back to shore. Though the boat worked, it was noted that it would be highly impractical for the original myth, which claimed that an entire aircraft carrier could be built out of pykrete.  Their conclusion was "Plausible, but ludicrous", since it would involve building vessels out of tens of thousands of tons of the material that would sink without being kept cool.
> 
> The MythBusters test was done at or slightly above freezing temperatures and generally proved that pykrete as a material was not better than other alternatives. Their vessel did not contain refrigeration units keeping the pykrete cold as the original plans called for and the boat had a much thinner construction than the ships proposed in World War II ....


Now, for structures in cold weather, as attached?  Maaaaaaaaaaaybe ....


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## pbi (1 May 2015)

Hmmmmm....a Navy that just seems to melt away...

Oh, wait, sorry. We've got one.


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