According to Xinhua News Agency's International Herald Leader, foreign experts are claiming that China will start its carrier program this year and the first Chinese aircraft carrier will be named after the capital city of Beijing. The news has not been officially confirmed yet, but military enthusiasts cannot wait to offer their ideas about aircraft carrier design.

Grassroots aircraft carrier designers

One grassroots aircraft carrier designer is a military aficionado of the post-'80s generation writing under the pseudonym "Narengele." In spite of his major in interior design in university six years ago, following graduation this reserved boy decided to work as an illustrator at Modern Ships magazine due to his interest in warship design.

His routine task is to draw pictures and diagrams of vessels for the magazine. What he draws must be an exact copy of the original vessel, leaving little room for his creative skills, but Narengele still loves his work for it combines his specialty with his hobby.

Narengele started to design aircraft carriers in junior middle school. Now, with increasing military knowledge, his designs have a professional and authoritative air. "Every grassroots designer like me would like to see a leading-edge aircraft carrier designed and built independently by Chinese," he said. "But we must be practical and avoid waste caused by trying too hard to be different."

Large numbers of designs of aircraft carriers with detailed drawings and figures are sent to the Modern Ships magazine every month, of which twin-hull and triple-hull aircraft carriers have become the most popular among military enthusiasts.

Moreover, several grassroots designers have even applied for patents for their designs. There are applications on the official website of the China Patent Information Center for an efficient aircraft carrier without superstructure, for a steam-powered carrier, for an aircraft-carrier flight deck, and for other related designs.

"Most of the designs are amateur," said Narengele. "But some of the creative ideas they contain may influence professional vessel designers."

However, impracticality is the biggest problem for public aircraft carrier design. Viable designs are generally close to existing ones, says Narengele. "Exisitng standard patterns of current aircraft carriers have been proved to be the most efficient and successful designs through decades of experience," he said. "Therefore our future aircraft carrier is not likely to be much different from these current designs."