A Nimitz or Ford-class aircraft carrier is the largest warship ever built. It stretches around 1,100 feet - about three football fields - and the flat top deck is a 4.5-acre runway where jets can take off and land at sea. On board live over 5,000 sailors and pilots, and there are about 90 aircraft tucked away in hangars below.
Inside, a carrier is basically a small floating city. There are sleeping bunks, multiple kitchens that serve around 18,000 meals a day, a hospital, a dental office, barber shops, a post office, a chapel, and even a TV studio. Sailors can spend months at sea without going ashore once.
The power source is nuclear. Two reactors generate enough energy to push the 100,000-ton ship through the water at over 30 knots - and they only need refueling about once every 25 years. Catapults on the deck use steam (or electromagnets on newer carriers) to fling 60,000-pound jets from a standstill to 165 mph in two seconds.
