Heller Charles de Gaulle

The story of the Charles de Gaulle began in 1974, when the oil crisis shook industrialized countries. In this context, the French government decided to undertake the construction of the Porte-Hélicoptères-75, a 16,400-ton helicopter carrier powered by nuclear energy, a project that was eventually abandoned. In 1982, the High Council of the French Navy requested that the studies for the nuclear propulsion of the PH-75 project (which had since become the aircraft carrier-75 and then PA-83) be used to define a new generation of aircraft carriers that could replace the Clemenceau and Foch before the end of the century. The nuclear propulsion gives the ship the ability to remain at sea longer without the need for refueling. More than 10,000 plans were developed by engineers from the Direction des Constructions Navales (DCN), and on February 4, 1986, the construction of the ship named Charles de Gaulle was approved. It was launched on May 7, 1994, and commissioned on May 18, 2001. This aircraft carrier is a true technical masterpiece, as it features a system of 12 movable masses weighing 22 tons each, which counteracts rolling motions and allows the ship to deploy its aircraft at sea with a strength of 5 or 6. The shapes of the Charles de Gaulle are "stealthy" to reduce its radar signature, making it less easily identifiable. As of 2020, France, alongside the United States, is the only country to have completed the construction of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.