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While aircraft carriers routinely transited the Panama Canal in years past, carriers built after WW II cannot fit through the Panama Canal as it exists today. The new locks being built now are wide enough to fit the lower part of today's supercarriers. However, their much wider superstructure width will prevent them from using the Canal. At their widest, a supercarrier is about 257 feet wide and would hit other structures within the new locks. Below is a link that describes a WW II aircraft carrier's service life and references a Panama Canal transit.

http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/carriers/histories/cv15-randolph/cv15-randolph.html

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16y ago

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