Charles de Gaulle (R91) is the flagship of the French Navy (Marine Nationale) and the largest Western European warship. She is the tenth French aircraft carrier, the first French nuclear-powered surface vessel, and the first and so far only nuclear-powered carrier completed outside of the United States Navy. She is named after French statesman and general Charles de Gaulle.
The ship carries a complement of Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard, Dassault Rafale M and E‑2C Hawkeye aircraft, EC725 Caracal and AS532 Cougar helicopter for RESCO, as well as modern electronics and Aster missiles. She is a CATOBAR-type carrier that uses a shorter version of the catapult system installed on the U.S. Nimitz class carriers, the 75 m C13‑3 steam catapult.
Famous quotes containing the words french and/or carrier:
“An old French sentence says, “God works in moments,”M”En peu d’heure Dieu labeure.” We ask for long life, but ‘t is deep life, or grand moments, that signify. Let the measure of time be spiritual, not mechanical.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We know what the animals do, what are the needs of the beaver, the bear, the salmon, and other creatures, because long ago men married them and acquired this knowledge from their animal wives. Today the priests say we lie, but we know better.”
—native American belief, quoted by D. Jenness in “The Carrier Indians of the Bulkley River,” Bulletin no. 133, Bureau of American Ethnology (1943)