HMS Queen Elizabeth sea trials

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HMS Queen Elizabeth sea trials

Fit for a queen

Sea trials for HMS Queen Elizabeth saw the Royal Navy’s largest and most advanced warship pass with flying colours

Power and the glory

Sea trials for HMS Queen Elizabeth saw the Royal Navy’s largest and most advanced warship pass with flying colours - as did the Rolls-Royce technology working inside her massive hull. 

The best things come to those who wait, and for the thousands of people patiently lining the banks of the Forth Estuary, the sight of the UK’s largest ever warship inching her way out of her birthplace was a sight to savour.

HMS Queen Elizabeth is the largest and most powerful warship ever constructed for the Royal Navy. The ship will operate with a crew of approximately 700, increasing to the full complement of 1,600 when aircraft are embarked. At 65,000 tonnes, HMS Queen Elizabeth is the first of two new aircraft carriers to be built for the Royal Navy. This summer, a project at almost 20 years in the making reached a high point with the start of sea trials.

Three years after she was officially named by Her Majesty The Queen, the nation’s future flagship spent an initial period of around six weeks at sea to test the fundamentals of the ship. The sea trials monitored speed, manoeuvrability, power and propulsion as well as undertaking mission system trials and additional tests on her levels of readiness.

Timing was key to this much-anticipated maiden voyage. Such is the size of this mammoth ship she had to wait for the highest tide for her propellers to clear the dock gates at Rosyth, Scotland. With only inches to spare on either side, the skill of ten tugboat captains helped ease the £3 billion ship into the expansive waters of the Forth.

40
Aircraft capacity
65,000
Weight (t)
70
Width (m)
280
Length (m)

Proven technology

Draught is one thing, but height is another, especially when faced with the prospect of passing beneath the three Forth bridges. 

Standing higher than Nelson’s Column, the ship features a hinged mast which had to be lowered just so she could squeeze under the iconic Forth Railway Bridge. It’s a unique feature of the ship, which is purely designed to fit her under this UNESCO World Heritage Site.

On her maiden voyage, this tricky manoeuvre had to wait for the lowest tide, at close to midnight on 26 June. Rolls-Royce is providing over £100 million of power and propulsion equipment to this, and sister ship HMS Prince of Wales. This mammoth project is being delivered by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA), an innovative link up between industry and the UK Ministry of Defence.

The Alliance was formed to ensure that all partners take collective responsibility and ownership of the project, and deliver best value for money, and indeed the best possible ships. Alongside the MoD there are three industrial partners: Babcock, BAE Systems and Thales UK. Rolls-Royce is part of a ‘sub-alliance’, led by Thales and also comprising GE Power Conversion and L3 Marine Systems UK, to deliver the power and propulsion for both ships.

This includes two 36MW MT30 marine gas turbines, each driving a large alternator, which will work with the four diesel generators to supply the ship’s electrical power, used to both propel and power the ship, of around 110MW – enough to power a town the size of Swindon. The vessel also features Rolls-Royce adjustable bolted propellers and shaftlines, steering gear and rudders, retractable stabilisers and the complete low voltage electrical distribution system.

MT30 marine gas turbine

MT30 Marine gas turbine

A fantastic moment

While all eyes were on the 65,000 tonne behemoth as she inched out of Rosyth Dock, this moment was only made possible after months of behind-the-scenes preparations. 

More than 700 sailors, led by Commanding Officer Captain Jerry Kyd, and 200 industry contractors set sail on board the carrier, and among them was Rolls-Royce Programme Manager, Tony Williams. He said: “Moving out of the dock for the very first time, after the ship has spent many years alongside, was a fantastic moment.

“Getting the ship out into the Forth and then having the propulsion system running as she squeezed under the Forth Bridge was a tremendous experience. To see two great icons of British engineering together was quite a sight.”

Tony added: “Preparing for the day had been a long and gradual process, as we’d set to work all our equipment to ensure it operated as designed. We’d had engineers commission every single item on board to ensure a smooth transition to sea trials. “For the MT30 gas turbines, they’ve now each run for more than 800 hours, much of that within Rosyth basin. We were able to load up the power and propulsion system to full power while she was alongside. This was a massive step forward for de-risking the programme and gave us a high. 

All electric

The ships’ extensive low voltage (LV) electrical system provides power to the mission systems, the auxiliary systems and all domestic services.

The project was the biggest undertaken by Rolls-Royce, with over 2,500km of cabling on each vessel. For each vessel, Rolls-Royce has supplied over 650 items of electrical equipment, ranging from switchboards and electrical distribution centres, to starter boards and motor starters. 

The ships needed to generate and distribute electricity at various voltages to meet the different needs of consumers as they require different levels of power, such as mission systems and domestic services. A complex cabling task level of confidence in advance of going to sea.”

Going to sea on what is Europe’s largest ever warship, is a privilege shared by just a few hundred people, and Tony and a small team of Rolls-Royce engineers were there to carry out vital monitoring as the ship inched out into the waters of the estuary. “I was with the ship for the first week, and was pleased to report that all the Rolls-Royce equipment performed as it should,” said Tony. “The two MT30s performed exceptionally well. There have been no issues at all.”

Following the sea trials, she arrived at her Royal Navy home base of Portsmouth in mid-August. Sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales is structurally complete and is currently in the outfitting phase of her programme at Rosyth. Her MT30 gas turbines will be fired up next year, when a period of commissioning will begin again.

 

Advanced propeller technology

To propel a ship of this size the propulsive power generated by the four electrical motors is 80MW, so each of the twin propellers has to absorb nearly 40MW. 

This is a substantial loading on the propeller, where the diameter is limited to 6.7m by other factors, especially in view of the high ship speed and the strict performance
requirement. 

Hydrodynamic design of the propellers and the semi-spade rudders was developed by Rolls-Royce in close co-operation with BMT SeaTech, Qinetiq and the Aircraft Carrier Alliance.

The propeller selected for the ships is the Rolls-Royce ABP (Adjustable Bolted Propeller). Individual blades are bolted to a hollow hub. In use, it functions as a fixed pitch propeller but pitch can be adjusted initially to match the rpm of the drive motor, or later in life to compensate for increased displacement during the vessel’s lifetime. 

Other benefits compared with a monoblock fixed pitch propeller are that individual blades can be quickly replaced in the event of damage and the very high accuracy in blade profile that can be achieved. The ABP selected for the aircraft carrier has five skewed blades and a diameter of 6.7m. 

As well as undertaking the propeller design, Rolls-Royce was also contracted to carry out a programme of hydrodynamic optimisation of the initial semi-spade rudder design.

 The mighty propellers are as powerful as they are adaptable

The mighty propellers are as powerful as they are adaptable

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HMS Queen Elizabeth sea trials

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