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Ambitious plans are revealed today to bring the biggest Royal Navy warship ever built to Liverpool in 2017.

The £3bn HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier measures nearly 1,000ft long and is currently being fitted out.

Navy bosses are hoping to sail her into the Mersey estuary after she comes into service in around two years’ time.

The port in Liverpool is one of the few areas of English coast that is deep enough to accommodate the 65,000-tonne vessel.

Commodore Gary Doyle, the Navy’s regional commander for northern England, exclusively told the ECHO: “We have an aspiration to get the HMS Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Navy’s new carrier, to Liverpool in 2017. She is the biggest ship ever built for the Royal Navy.

“This is one of the few ports we believe we can get her alongside.

“We want to use her as a backdrop to promote Liverpool and the North West.”

The plans to bring the HMS Queen Elizabeth to Liverpool are in an early stage and exact dates have not been decided.

But the event would be a spectacular moment in the city’s maritime history and would follow the visit to Liverpool by the Three Queens earlier this year to celebrate cruise company Cunard’s 175th anniversary.

The Royal Navy has produced an artist’s impression of how HMS Queen Elizabeth might look if she berthed in Liverpool.

Liverpool-born Commodore Doyle, the former commander of HMS Southampton, said: “Liverpool has a proud history and association with the Royal Navy – and we are keen to maintain this.

“A visit by HMS Queen Elizabeth would strengthen these ties, as well as promoting the region to the world.”

The ship will be big enough to carry 40 planes and will be taller than Niagara Falls.

Powered by two Rolls-Royce engines, HMS Queen Elizabeth will be able to sail for 10,000 miles before refuelling and be crewed by nearly 700 sailors.

She and her sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, will be the largest vessels ever built for the Royal Navy and will replace the HMS Invincible, HMS Illustrious and HMS Ark Royal aircraft carriers.

The Queen Elizabeth is currently being built at shipyards around the country.

Initially the ship will carry helicopters, but from 2020 she will be the launch pad for the brand new F35 Lightning II, the world’s most advanced stealth fighter-bomber.