HMS Ark Royal (R09)

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HMS Ark Royal (R09)

Career
Ordered:	Mid 1942
Laid down:	3 May 1943
Launched:	3 May 1950
Commissioned:	25 February 1955
Decommissioned:	December 1978
Fate:	Scrapped in 1980
Struck:	February 1979
General Characteristics
Displacement:	36,800 tons (as built) 43,060 tons (1978)
Length:	245 m (804 ft) overall
Beam:	34 m (112 ft) (as built) 50 m (171 ft) (1978)
Draught:	10 m (33 ft) standard 9.5 m (36 ft) deep
Propulsion:	8 Admiralty 3-drum boilers in 4 boiler rooms 4 sets of Parsons geared turbines, 4 shafts
Speed:	31.5 kt (58 km/h)
Range:	11,265 km (7000 miles) at 14 knots 5000 nm at 24 knots
Complement:	2250
Armament:	As built: 16 × 4.5 inch (8 × 2) 52 × 40 mm(6 × 6, 2 × 2, 12 × 1) 1969 refit: none
Aircraft:	79 initially 48 after 1969 refit
Motto:	Zeal Does Not Rest

HMS Ark Royal (R09) was an Audacious-class aircraft carrier of the British Royal Navy and, when she was decommissioned in 1978, was the Royal Navy's last remaining conventional catapult and arrested-landing aircraft carrier.

1 Construction and modifications
2 Operational history
3 Aircraft and squadrons
4 References
5 External links
6 See also

[edit] Construction and modifications

Ark Royal was the sister ship to HMS Eagle, initially named HMS Audacious, hence the name of the class. Four Audacious-class ships were laid down, but two were cancelled at the end of the war and construction of the other two suspended for several years. Both surviving ships would be extensively upgraded throughout their lifetimes.

The immediately previous Ark Royal was also an aircraft carrier, and had been torpedoed on 14 November 1941.

It was not until 7 years after Ark Royal was laid down that she was finally launched, and her completion took 5 more years. In this time, she underwent redesign and, when completed, she was markedly different from her sister ship. When commissioned, she had a 5.5° partially angled flight deck, 2 steam catapults capable of launching aircraft weighing up to 30,000 pounds (14,000 kg), a deck-edge lift on the port side, modified armament, and the new mirror landing system. These innovations allowed aircraft to land and take off from the carrier at the same time. Her flight deck as built was 800 feet (240 m) long by 112 feet (34 m) wide.

About a year after commissioning, she had her forward port 4.5 inch (114 mm) guns removed to improve aircraft operations over the angled deck. Four years later, the port deck-edge lift and the forward starboard 4.5 inch (114 mm) guns were also removed. The remaining 4.5 inch guns were removed in the 1964 refit. From March 1967 to February 1970, she underwent her final major refit, which included an 8.5° angled flight deck, new catapults and arrestor cables, a new island, and a partially new electronic suite (some of her original radars were retained). She was also fitted for 4 Seacat missile launchers, but they were never installed, so she emerged from this refit with no defensive armament.

Initially the ship had a complement of up to 50 aircraft comprising Sea Hawks, Sea Venoms, Gannets, Skyraiders and various helicopters.

[edit] Operational history

Ark Royal participated in many exercises as part of the British fleet and NATO squadrons, but saw no combat duty. She was not involved in the Suez Crisis of 1956, about a year after her commissioning, because she was doing post-refit trials. In 1963, she carried out trials for a new type of Vertical/Short Take Off and Landing (V/STOL) aircraft, the Hawker P.1127, which developed into the Hawker-Siddeley Harrier.

HMS Ark Royal with the F-4 Phantom, 1976

She was involved in a notorious incident in 1970 when she collided with the Soviet destroyer Kotlin while it was shadowing Ark Royal (a common practice during the Cold War), which was in the Mediterranean to participate in a NATO exercise. Ark Royal was damaged only slightly, while the Soviet destroyer sustained significant damage.

The ship featured in the 1960s British television series Not Only... But Also starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. In one episode they used the ship's catapult to shoot a piano into the sea while Moore was (supposedly) playing it.

By 1970, Ark Royal now had a complement of 39 aircraft. This typically comprised 12 Phantom FG MK.1s, 14 Buccaneer S MK.2s, 4 Gannet AEW Mk.3s, 6 Sea King HAS Mk.1s, 2 Wessex HU Mk.5s and 1 Gannet COD MK.4. The Buccaneers doubled as tanker aircraft, using buddy refuelling pods, and as long-range reconnaissance aircraft with bomb bay-mounted camera packs. In July 1976, she represented Britain at the United States Bicentennial Celebration in New York City. Originally intended to be taken out of service in the mid 1970s, she was kept operational by cannabalizing parts from her now-decommissioned sister.

In the late 1970s, the ship made a return to television. A major BBC documentary series, Sailor, was made, tracking life on board the ship. The theme tune for the programme was "Sailing" by Rod Stewart - a song that came to be associated with the ship and her successor.

The scrapping of Ark Royal in 1980, two years after her sister Eagle had been scrapped, marked the end of conventional fixed-wing aircraft operation aboard Royal Navy carriers. She had borne so many new inventions, and yet was never replaced by a new carrier equipped with them. There was some discussion about preserving her as a museum ship, and some private funds were raised; however, the Ministry of Defence would not sanction these efforts.

The Centaur-class aircraft carrier HMS Hermes remained in service after her, but had been converted to a helicopter commando carrier in 1971 and then as a V/STOL carrier. The three much smaller Invincible-class carriers currently in service can carry only vertical/short takeoff and landing aircraft. Though the two CVF carriers due to enter service in the 2010s will initially be configured for STOVL operations, the carriers will be adaptable to conventional catapult and arrested-landing configuration in the future.

Ironically the Falklands War took place only two years after Ark Royal was scrapped; had the carrier still been in service for the conflict, the Argentine Air Force would have had a considerably tougher time launching attacks on the Royal Navy Task Force.

[edit] Aircraft and squadrons

See HMS Ark Royal for other ships of the same name.

[edit] References

Roger Chesneau, Aircraft Carriers of the World, 1914 to the Present; An Illustrated Encyclopedia (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1984)
Robert Gardiner, ed., Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1982 (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1983)