In , she became the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the United States Navy, and the world, as well as the eighth United States naval vessel to bear the name. At 1, feet m , [ 4 ] [ 5 ] she is the longest naval vessel ever built and the only ship of a class that was originally planned to have five other ships.
Her 93, long-ton 94, t [ 3 ] displacement ranks her class as the third largest carrier class, after the Nimitz class and the Gerald R. Ford class. Enterprise had a crew of some 4, service members. Designed under project SCB , [ 23 ] USS Enterprise was intended as the lead ship of a new class of six nuclear powered aircraft carriers, but massive increases in construction costs led to the remaining vessels being cancelled. Enterprise is the only aircraft carrier to house more than two nuclear reactors, [ 4 ] having an eight-reactor propulsion design, with each A2W reactor taking the place of one of the conventional boilers in earlier constructions.
Because of the huge cost of her construction, Enterprise was launched and commissioned without the planned RIM-2 Terrier missile launchers. It was installed on only two vessels, Enterprise and the cruiser USS Long Beach , placing an unacceptable power drain on the electric systems of both ships. The SPS was a phased array radar which had a range of nautical miles against large targets, and nautical miles against small, fighter-size targets.
The system consisted of six rows of antennae encircling the dome. The antennas in the upper two rows were encased in piping radomes as they were small and fragile. On 24 September , the ship was launched , sponsored by the wife of William B.
Franke , then Secretary of the Navy. On 12 January , the ship made her maiden voyage starting an extensive shakedown cruise and a lengthy series of tests and training exercises designed to determine the full capabilities of the nuclear powered super carrier.
