 The USS Forrestal, the world's first aircraft carrier built after World II, launched at Newport Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Newport News, Va., under the sponsorship of Josephine Ogden Forrestal, widow of it's namesake, the nation's first Secretary of Defense, James V. Forrestal on Dec. 11, 1954.
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Size
 Length: 1,086 feet
Width: 252 feet (flight deck) 129.5 feet (beam)
Height: 249 feet from keel to mast (approximately a 25-story building)
Draft: 37 feet
Displacement: 80,000 tons (loaded)
Flight deck: 250,000 square feet (nearly 4 acres)
Catapults (steam): 4
Aircraft: Approximately 90
Hanger deck: 75,000 square feet (3 sections)
Decks: 3 enclosed, full-length
Levels:19
Quarters
Crew: 3,019 people
Air wing: 2,480 people
Compartments and spaces: More than 2,000
Elevators: 4
Meals served daily: 10,500
Telephones: 2,300
Fresh water plant: 200,000 daily
Air conditioning: 1,050 tons
Structure/Power
Rudders: Three (45 tons each)
Propellers: Four 21-foot diameter units, each with 5 blades
Anchors: Two (30 tons each)
Structural steel required: 52,500 tons
Weld steel used: 1,000 tons
Power: 8 boilers, each 600 pounds-per-square inch; 4 geared steam turbines
Horsepower: 250,000
Speed: Over 30 knots ( a little more than 35 miles per hour)
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Forrestal Firsts
Largest warship ever built
Equipped with nuclear-armed planes
Angled deck which allowed simultaneous landings and takeoffs
Designed for jet aircraft with armored flight deck
Enclosed hurricane bow
Steam-powered catapults for launching aircraft
Four deck-edge elevators for moving aircraft to and from hangar and flight deck
 One of the Forrestal's four propellers. they are more than 21 feet high and are the largest ever installed on a ship at Newport News. They have been removed from the carrier.
 Actual size: The steel flight deck of the Forrestal is 1 3/4" thick
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