French Aircraft Carrier Foch Last Trip

Built at the end of the 1950s in the shipyard of Saint-Nazaire, in the west of France, the Foch was for 37 years in the service of the French Navy. The ship, capable of catapulting 12 to 15 tonne planes at a take-off speed of 150 knots, bought in 2000 by Brazil, which renamed it Sao Paulo, will be sent to the bottom. The Brazilian navy considered that there was no other choice given her very degraded condition. An area some 350 km off the Brazilian coast, 5,000 meters deep, was considered "the safest" for this scuttling.

The Clemenceau-class aircraft carriers, of which Foch, now renamed and reflagged as São Paulo, is the last surviving member, are of conventional CATOBAR design. The landing area is 165.5 meters (543 ft) long by 29.5 meters (97 ft) wide; it is angled at 8 degrees off of the ship's axis. The flight deck is 265 meters (869 ft) long. The forward aircraft elevator is to starboard, and the rear elevator is positioned on the deck edge to save hangar space. The forward of two 52 meters (171 ft) catapults is at the bow to port, the aft catapult is on the forward area of angled landing deck. The hangar deck dimensions are 152 by 22–24 meters (499 by 72–79 ft) with 7 meters (23 ft) overhead.