The scale of the UK's biggest aircraft carrier has been revealed in a new set of images.
The ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is currently under assembly at Rosyth in Fife and aerial pictures show the full length of its 919ft hull for the first time.
It currently weighs 40,000 tonnes but, with seven large sections still to be lifted into place, it will eventually weigh more than 65,000 tonnes.
HMS Queen Elizabeth and another aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, are the largest warships ever constructed for the Royal Navy.
The first is due to be launched in 2016.
They are being built by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, a partnership of BAE Systems, Babcock, Thales and the Ministry of Defence.
Ian Booth, programme director at the Alliance, said: "These new images show really clearly how much progress the Aircraft Carrier Alliance has made towards deliver-ing these magnificent ships.
"There are thousands of skilled men and women working on this programme, and they should all feel proud of what they are accomplishing."
Six shipyards around the UK are involved in building various parts of the ships, which are ultimately being assembled in Fife.
About 10,000 people have worked on the construction at various stages and crews of 1600, including pilots, will populate each ship when they are in service.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article