The new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers are the latest and largest addition to the Royal Navy’s arsenal. Numerous tasks on-board the ship require overhead cranes, including servicing Chinook helicopters and handling various supplies in the ship’s workshop and on deck.
BAE Ship Systems oversaw the ship fit-out and contracted SCX Special Projects to design and install bespoke cranes on each of the two new carriers.
Ten bespoke cranes were designed and built to serve a variety of lifting and handling purposes. By customising machinery from our sister company Street Crane, we created innovative cranes to meet the challenge of safe lifting on a ship at sea.
Keeping the cranes operational in rough seas with up to 20-foot waves required us to engineer unique mechanical, electrical and safety solutions, while maximising reliability and availability.