The first of two huge gas turbines which will be the ship’s main powerplant has been lowered into place on Royal Navy’s HMS Prince of Wales.
This is the first powerplant to be installed on the second of the nation’s new aircraft carriers.
Fitted in the bowels of HMS Prince of Wales, this 120-tonne engine, a Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbine, will provide the 65,000-tonne leviathan – younger sister of HMS Queen Elizabeth – with around one third of the power she needs for her sailors, aircrew and operations around the globe.
According to manufacturers Rolls-Royce, for its size, no marine gas turbine on the planet is more powerful.
Prince of Wales is taking shape in the same specially-enlarged dry dock as the Queen Elizabeth was pieced together in at Rosyth.
The latter is being fitted out ahead of going to sea for the first time next summer, while Prince of Wales is also due to be officially named – the equivalent of a launch ceremony, minus the slipway to hurtle down – next year.
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Image: Royal Navy