LAST month the Royal Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, was named. Weighing in at 65,000 tonnes and with a flight deck measuring in at 4.5 acres, she is the largest warship ever built for the Royal Navy.

HMS Queen Elizabeth will provide a mobile air base for the UK’s armed forces.

She will be capable of launching, landing and maintaining aircraft 24-hours-a-day in support of war efforts and humanitarian aid and disaster relief operations. The carrier will operate worldwide with the new Joint Strike Fighter Lightning II jets and a number of types of helicopter.

The ballast system will be used to keep the ship stable and level during her time at sea, even through heavy seas when tonnes of seawater are transferred around the ship.

Preparing the ship for her sea trials in 2017 will continue and flight trials with the Lighting II aircraft take place in 2018. Work on HMS Queen Elizabeth’s sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, is also under way.

Diary Dates:

Today, The Parachute regiment Association meets at 20.00hrs at Thornbury Barracks.

Tomorrow, The RAF Association meets at 13.00hrs at unit 16, Listerhills Science Park, The Royal British Legion, Bingley Branch, meets at 19.00hrs at 20 Heath Street, Bingley.

Thursday, The Royal Military Police Association meets at 20.00hrs at Pudsey Royal British Legion.

Friday, The RAF Regiment Association meets at 19.30hrs at Thornbury Barracks.

Saturday, The Borneo and Malaya Veterans Association meets at 14.00hrs at Headingley Club.

Sunday, The Bradford Branch of The Royal Engineers Association meets at 11.00hrs At Sir Titus Salt’s, Bradford.

Remembrance:

THE following are being specially remembered at Bradford Cathedral this week: Thomas Kershaw Walton, Leonard Edwin Ward, John Halliday Ward, John Leslie Waterhouse, Charles Watts, Harry Bourne Weale, Cecil George Weatherlake, Geoffrey Albert Webster, John William Wells, Frank Gordon West, Kenneth Westerman, Arnold Bertram White, Jack White, William Edwin Whitehead, James Leslie Whitehouse, Maurice Whiteley, John Thomas Wilkinson, George Richard Wilkinson, Harold Wilkinson, Arthur Wilkinson, Victor Wilson, Wilfred Wilson.