Stunning graphics demonstrate future carriers' vast size

The team behind the Navy’s future flagships have produced a series of stunning posters to demonstrate the sheer scale of the carriers – including parking one on the Thames outside Parliament.

To give the public an idea of the sense of scale of HMS Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales, they put one on the Thames next to the Palace of Westminster and another at Victory Jetty in Portsmouth.



DWARFING the mother of all parliaments, this is how the nation’s future flagship would look if you could sail her up the Thames to the Palace of Westminster.

Thanks to the team behind the 65,000-tonne leviathan, we can give you a sense of scale of the largest warships ever built for the Royal Navy, courtesy of several artist’s impressions and graphics.

At 280 metres (918ft) long the carrier, which will enter service later this decade, is 15 metres longer than the Palace of Westminster (which runs along the Thames for 265m or 870ft).

Her masthead would rise 58m (190ft) above the river – not as high as Big Ben (96m or 315ft), but six metres (20ft) taller than Nelson’s Column.

As for the width, well with a flight deck beam of 70m (229ft), she’d stretch nearly one third of the way across the Thames.

With the first of the two super-carriers nearing outward completion at Rosyth on the Forth, the Aircraft Carrier Alliance wanted to demonstrate the sheer size of Her Majesty’s Ships Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales, using graphics of the ships alongside at Westminster and in their home base of Portsmouth.

“They’re stunning images and show that the UK can expect two really spectacular ships once construction is complete,” said Ian Booth, programme director of the Alliance.