Five Marvels of British Engineering

Take a look at the five marvels of British engineering captured in a single image courtesy of RN photographer PO(Phot) Owen Cooban.

In the background, the iconic Forth Rail Bridge. Then the old Forth road crossing. Next to it the replacement road bridge, the Queensferry Crossing , due to take its first traffic next year. And in the foreground, on the left, under the giant blue structure of the Goliath crane, the forward, midship and forward island sections of HMS Prince of Wales.

And a few metres away, in Rosyth’s main basin (nearly three million cubic metres of water – enough to fill more than 1,100 Olympic-sized swimming pools), a hive of activity beneath scaffolding and canvas, is her older sister HMS Queen Elizabeth.

The 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier – focal point of the Royal Navy of tomorrow – is a year into fitting out at the dockyard, where engineers from the Aircraft Carrier Alliance and the Queen Elizabeth’s ship’s company are installing and testing systems ready for the maiden voyage in 2016.

Last month they fired up the diesel generators for the first time (200 tonnes of high-spec engineering generating 11 megawatts of power).

Image: Royal Navy