Landing on a Postage Stamp

April 15, 2008 – 5:11 am

Every once in a while, when they do a news story about aircraft carriers, the "landing on a moving postage stamp" metaphor is used to describe trying to set a fighter jet down on the flight deck safely. One of the more entertaining Rough Equivalents for a carrier landing that often gets used is some variation on "place a stamp in the center of a high school gym, then take a running start from one of the corners of the gym and dive at the stamp, trying to land with your tongue on it."

But if we're going to compare the flight deck of an aircraft carrier to a postage stamp, that got me thinking about how much it would cost to cover that flight deck in postage stamps. Since today is the day our taxes are due in the United States, and aircraft carriers are paid for with our tax dollars, I thought it appropriate for today's Rough Equivalents.

According to naval-technology.com, the flight deck of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier measures 333 * 77 meters, or 256,410,000 square centimeters. The size of the smallest custom postage stamp over at Zazzle is 1.8 x 1.3 inches, or 15.1 square centimeters. Rounded to the nearest stamp, the area of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier's flight deck is roughly equal to 16,980,795 postage stamps.

At the current rate of 41 cents per stamp, it would cost $6,962,125.95 to cover the flight deck of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier in postage stamps (not including labor, of course). At the rate of 42 cents a stamp, which the U.S. Postal Service will switch to in May, the cost would go up to $7,131,933.90.

But a more important question is: if you covered the flight deck of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier with $6,962,125.95 in stamps, would that be enough to mail it anywhere? If we ignore the fact that the U.S. Postal Service won't let you mail nuclear materials, explosives, jet fuel, and objects as large as an aircraft carrier, we can derive some Rough Equivalents.

According to the U.S. Navy a Nimitz class aircraft carrier weighs/displaces approximately 97,000 tons at full load. That translates to 194 million pounds.

Using the U.S. Postal Service's postage calculator for a nondescript 70 pound package (their maximum package weight) going from Seattle to New York, we get quotes of $103.10 for Priority Mail service (2-3 days) and $49.51 for the slower Parcel Post rate. At those rates it would cost $285,762,000 to mail a Nimitz class aircraft carrier by Priority Mail and $137,216,200 to mail it by Parcel Post. Even at the cheaper rate, we come up $130,254,074.05 short.

But what could you mail with $6,962,125.95 in stamps? Well, each stamp will let you post a first class letter of up to one ounce. So if you were mailing 1 ounce Christmas cards (I know it's April, but some folks like to get an early start), you could mail 1,061,299 pounds of Christmas cards. Or at parcel post rates, you could mail 9,843,243 pounds of something. A few Rough Equivalents for 9,843,243 pounds might be:

• 24.6 blue whales (though the .6 might get messy)
• 134.5 Sherman tanks
• 1737.6 Cadillac Escalades
• 70,308.8 Airzone 14-Foot Trampolines

What are some Rough Equivalents you can come up with for 16,980,795 postage stamps?