Blake Hall
This old warship is the USS Ranger, an ailing aircraft carrier on its way to become soda cans or beer cans or framework for a building or pickup trucks or a barbecue grill, maybe? Who knows. But it is indeed being recycled, after failed attempts to make it into a museum.
According to the Oregonian, the foundation linked to the ship claimed it was a potential gold mine of a tourist attraction, estimating that it would rake in over $40 million annually to the Oregon town of Fairview.
The project was scrapped, however, when the carrier simply wouldn’t “settle” into the Columbia River. If it knew the consequences of not settling, it probably would’ve found a way to do it. But, alas, aircraft carriers can’t reason or utilize logic because, well, they’re not alive.
In the video above, you’ll see it make its way along the coast of Balboa, California, en route to Brownsville, Texas where it’ll finally be demolished and repurposed.
Some guy with a hobby drone shot the footage, which interestingly enough isn’t the first time the ship’s gotten some significant screen time. It got a little love in the opening scenes of the classic 1986 Tom Cruise film Top Gun.