An aerial drone has captured some up-close footage of the ex-USS Ranger, one of many U.S. Navy’s first-ever ‘supercarriers’ and the ship utilized in Top Gun, on its closing voyage to a Gulf Coast scrapyard.

The decommissioned ‘Ranger’ (CV 61) was bought to International Shipbreaking, Ltd in December for a single penny, the bottom the Navy might have presumably paid a contractor, regardless of years of effort to make it right into a floating museum.

In March, it started its tow from the Navy’s inactive ships upkeep facility in Bremerton, Washington for a International Shipbreaking’s facility in Brownsville, Texas, the place it will likely be fully dismantled and recycled.

Commissioned in 1957, the Ranger was the third ship within the Navy’s Forrestal-class, thought-about the first supercarriers because of their excessive tonnage and likewise the primary provider’s to have been constructed with an angled flight deck.

The dismantling of the Ranger follows the identical destiny as two of its sister ship’s, ex-USS Forrestal and ex-USS Saratoga, which have been bought scrap to All Star Metals in late 2013 and 2014, respectively. The closing ship, ex-USS Independence, will quickly observe go well with.

Ranger was the one ship of the Forrestal class to spend its total profession within the Pacific, with a complete of twenty-two Western Pacific deployments. The vessel was additionally an lively participant within the Vietnam War, and the one West Coast-based provider to deploy in assist of Operation Desert Storm. Ranger was additionally famously used within the film Top Gun, as talked about.

The ship was taken out of service in 1993.

Photos courtesy Creative Commons

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