Thread by @foolsball

I thought this was an interesting question, so I compared the islands and starboard sides of the Shandong and Fujian more closely, and realized that this was indeed a interesting design of the Fujian. 1/11

https://twitter.com/TyzerGold/status/1789159406749302814

Let's look at the Shandong first. It can be seen that the island of the Shandong is almost on the far right side of the hull, and the flight deck barely extends to the right of the island. 2/11

The Fujian, on the other hand, clearly has an extended flight deck on the right side of the island. 3/11

Why is there such a difference between the islands of the two carriers? Before answering that question, it is necessary to understand the location of the ship's island. 4/11

The island is usually placed as close to the side of the carrier as possible so as not to impede flight. However, the island is heavy, so it cannot be placed directly on the flight deck, but is supported by a load-bearing structure that extends from the hull. 5/11

So we can be clear that the position of the island depends on the support structure of the hull extension, not the size of the flight deck. In other words, the deck on the right side of Fujian's island is because the flight deck is enlarged, not because the island is smaller.6/11

So the next question is why the Fujian made this change. To expand the flight deck area, of course. The Fujian's flight deck is 10 m wider than the Shandong/Liaoning. 7/11

So why not just modify the support structure underneath the island of the Fujian and move the island to the edge of the ship to maximize the valuable parking area on the left side of the island? 8/11

IMO this can only be considered as a limitation of the Fujian design plan as it comes from the enlarged Liaoning/Shandong/Kuznetsov. 9/11

If the island is moved, then the entire balance of the ship and the boiler exhaust and intake pipes will have to be modified. So we see that although the flight deck has become 10m wider, the island's distance from the centerline of the hull remains essentially unchanged 10/11

Many have noticed that Fujian has an extra "door" on the island, which is very high and has a strange structure inside. My bolder guess is that the structure is much like a winch structure for horizontal replenishment. Maybe it's a way to maximize the use of this extra deck.11/11