HMS Eagle (R05)

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HMS Eagle (R05)

Career
Ordered:
Laid down:	24 October 1942
Launched:	19 March 1946
Commissioned:	5 October 1951
Decommissioned:	1972
Fate:	Scrapped
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:
Length:	804 ft (245 m)
Beam:	135 ft (41 m)
Draught:	33 ft (10.1 m)
Propulsion:
Speed:	32 kt (59 km/h)
Range:
Complement:	2500
Armament:
Aircraft:
Motto:

HMS Eagle was an aircraft carrier of the British Royal Navy, in service 1951-1972. It is one of the two largest British aircraft carriers ever built.

Initially laid down in 1942 at Harland and Wolff's, Belfast yard as one of four ships of the Audacious class that were laid down during World War II as part of the British naval buildup during that conflict. However, two were cancelled at the end of hostilities, and the remaining two were suspended. Originally Audacious, she was finally launched as Eagle (the fifteenth Royal Navy ship to receive this name) in March 1946, after the Audacious class carrier Eagle was cancelled.

A number of changes were incorporated into the design, although Eagle was launched too early to see an angled flight deck installed, and the ship was commissioned in October 1951.

Her first wartime service came in 1956, when she took part in the Suez Crisis. The ship's aircraft of that period included Westland Wyverns, Douglas Skyraiders, Armstrong Whitworth Sea Hawks and de Havilland Sea Venoms. An angled flight deck was fitted in 1956-1957 with a mirror landing sight. In 1959 she was taken to Devonport Dockyard for an extensive refit and modernisation along the lines of that given to HMS Victorious. She was re-commissioned in 1964 as a very new and different ship. In addition to major improvements to her accommodation, machinery and weaponry she also acquired a proper angled deck (at 8.5 degrees) with steam catpults, enlarged island and as a result of all these plus more changes; an increased displacement (+50,000 tons). This made her the largest ship in the Royal Navy. By this time, the airwing had changed to Blackburn Buccaneer, Sea Vixen and Fairey Gannet aircraft. The Supermarine Scimitar also saw service on the ship during this period before being replaced by the Buccaneer.

She was refitted at Devonport once more to give her the more powerful catpults and wires to operate the F-4 Phantoms. She re-commissioned in 1967.

However, by the mid-1960s, the British Government had decided that the days of the large Royal Navy aircraft carrier were limited. The fleet was swiftly run down, with Eagle being the penultimate to decommission. She was paid off in 1972, and towed to Devonport where she was placed on reserve. Up until 1976 she was officially still on reserve but had been used as a source of parts for Ark Royal until the latter decommissioned as well in 1978. Eagle was then swiftly scrapped.