HMS Ark Royal (R09)
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HMS Ark Royal with Phantom FG1 and Buccaneer S2 aircraft on deck, 1976
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History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | Ark Royal |
Ordered | 18 March 1942 |
Builder | Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, England |
Laid down | 3 May 1943 |
Launched | 3 May 1950 |
Commissioned | 22 February 1955 |
Decommissioned | 14 February 1979 |
Stricken | February 1979 |
Homeport | HMNB Devonport |
Identification | Pennant number: R09 |
Motto | Desire Does Not Rest |
Nickname(s) | The Mighty Ark |
Fate | Scrapped 1980 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Audacious-class aircraft carrier |
Displacement |
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Length | 804 feet (245 m) |
Beam |
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Draught |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h) |
Range |
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Complement | 2,250 (2,640 inc. air staff) |
Sensors and processing systems | After 1970:
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Armament |
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Aircraft carried |
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HMS Ark Royal (R09) was an
Construction and modifications
Ark Royal was the sister ship to
A contract was placed with
In this time, she underwent redesign and, when completed, she was markedly different from her sister ship. Shortly before her launch from the Cammell Laird shipyard, an image of the ship painted with her white undercoat was captured by the pictorialist photographer
A further four years passed before she commenced her sea trials.[5]
About a year after commissioning, her forward port 4.5 inches (110 mm) guns were removed to improve aircraft operations over the angled deck. Four years later, the port deck-edge lift and the forward starboard 4.5 inch guns were also removed. After the 1964 refit, only one twin 4.5 inch gun mount remained aft on port and starboard side.[6] From 1967 to February 1970, she underwent a refit which was a major rebuild to her structure, but only an austere update to her electronic equipment, and was confined to changes needed to operate the RN's version of the Phantom. Prior to, and during the refit, concerns over costs, the age of the hull, and changing political opinions over naval requirements threatened the refit, and even a possibility that the ship could be scrapped. However, convincing arguments to retain and upgrade the carrier won through.
The refit cost around
At her entry into service, the ship had a complement of up to 50 aircraft, comprising
Operational history
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Ark Royal participated in many exercises as part of the British fleet and
She was part of the
On 9 November 1970, whilst in the
The ship featured in the 1960s British television series Not Only... But Also starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. When commissions ended, items were fired off the catapult into the sea, including pianos and once a toilet complete with paying-off pennant.[citation needed]
By 1970, Ark Royal had a complement of 39 aircraft. This typically comprised twelve Phantom FG Mk.1s, of
In 1972, the Buccaneers aboard Ark Royal took part in a long-range strike mission over British Honduras in Central America shortly before its independence as a constitutional monarchy named Her Majesty's Government of Belize to deter a possible invasion by Guatemala, which had long-standing territorial claims.[12]
In 1977, under the flag of Admiral Sir Henry Leach KCB Commander-in-Chief Fleet, Ark Royal led the Royal Navy's tribute to and celebrations of
In the mid-1970s, the ship made a return to television. A major
She entered HMNB Devonport on 4 December 1978 , and decommissioned on 14 February 1979 . Like her sister Eagle, she had a relatively short (24 year) life, and when the White Ensign lowered for the last time, the Royal Navy no longer had fixed-wing aircraft at sea, a situation that persisted until the acceptance into service of HMS Invincible in March 1980 and the completion of the conversion of HMS Hermes to operate the Sea Harrier in mid-1981. On 29 March 1980 , the Ministry of Defence (MOD) announced that she would be sold for scrap, and so ended plans to preserve her. She left Devonport on 22 September 1980 under tow, to be scrapped at Cairnryan near Stranraer in Scotland, arriving on 28 September. When arriving at the breakers, her sister ship Eagle was in the final process of being broken up there. Breaking-up of Ark Royal took until 1983. During this period, many former crew travelled to the breakers' jetty at the remote corner of Loch Ryan to pay their last respects; some were reduced to tears when seeing the ship being torn to pieces. However, various parts of the ship remain as souvenirs or memorials; for instance, an anchor (along with an anchor from her sister ship Eagle) outside the Fleet Air Arm Museum at RNAS Yeovilton. One of her other anchors is in Armada Way, Plymouth, near Plymouth Hoe.
squadron | aircraft type | number of aircraft |
role |
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809 NAS | Buccaneer S2 | 14 | strike |
892 NAS | Phantom FG1 |
12 | fleet air defence |
849B NAS | Gannet AEW3 | 4 | airborne early warning |
Gannet COD4 | 1 | carrier on-board delivery | |
824 NAS | Sea King HAS2 | 7 | anti-submarine warfare |
Ship's Flight | Wessex HAS1 | 2 | search and rescue |
Legacy
While Ark Royal's career spanned 24 years from the time of her commissioning (her name was a household word), she spent as much time in refit; repair and reserve and modernisation as in commissioned service (12 years). It required a lot of effort from her engineers to keep her serviceable between yard periods. Ark Royal had been poorly preserved during her lengthy construction[7] from 1942 to 1955, and much of her machinery was obsolete by her completion, including her dated DC electrics, supplemented later by some AC systems, resulting in a ship that experienced regular defects and mechanical failure.[7] Eagle was a more reliable and well-built ship,[14] and spent far more time at sea than her sister. The scrapping of Ark Royal in 1980, two years after Eagle, marked the end of conventional fixed-wing aircraft operations aboard Royal Navy carriers. She had borne so many innovations, yet her replacement was not equipped with any of these. There was some discussion about preserving her as a museum ship, and some private funds were raised; the MOD would not sanction these efforts. The Fleet Air Arm Museum has subsequently mimicked the ship's island and flight deck in its central hall as an Aircraft Carrier Experience exhibition.
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 much smaller Invincible-class aircraft carrier could carry only vertical/short takeoff and landing aircraft and helicopters. The two new Queen Elizabeth-class carriers, which were commissioned in 2017 and 2019, were originally designed to operate V/STOL aircraft. Despite expert advice, and in an attempt to reduce costs, the UK government requested that the new carriers be modified to operate conventional CATOBAR (catapult-assisted takeoff and barrier/arrested recovery) aircraft. Fitting electromagnetic catapults would have required huge structural changes and an upgrade of the ships' energy generation, which proved unfeasible, and resulted in a decision to return to the original configuration.[15]
Aircraft and squadrons
- Hawker Sea Hawk
- de Havilland Sea Venom
- Fairey Gannet
- Westland Wyvern
- Grumman Avenger
- McDonnell Douglas Phantom FG1
- Blackburn Buccaneer
- Supermarine Scimitar
- de Havilland Sea Vixen
- Westland Dragonfly
- Westland Sea King
- Westland Wessex
Commanding officers
- 1954–1956: Captain Dennis Cambell RN
- 1956–1958: Captain Frank Hopkins RN
- 1959–1961: Captain Peter Hill-NortonRN
- 1961–1963: Captain Donald Gibson RN
- 1963–1964: Captain Michael Pollock RN
- 1964–1965: Captain Anthony Griffin RN
- 1965–1967: Captain Michael Fell RN
- 1969–1971: Captain Raymond Lygo RN
- 1971–1972: Captain John Roberts RN
- 1972–1973: Captain Desmond Cassidi RN
- 1973–1975: Captain John Gerard-Pearse RN
- 1975–1976: Captain Wilfred Graham RN
- 1976–1978: Captain Edward R Anson RN
See also
References
Notes
- ^ "HMS Ark Royal - SeaVixen". www.SeaVixen.org.
- ^ Hobbs 2013, p. 178.
- ^ Hobbs 2013, p. 296
- ^ HMAS Melbourne (II) – 25 Years On, p6
- ^ Bebbington. Page 58.
- ^ serving RN Maintainer
- ^ a b c d D. Hobbs (2013). British Aircraft Carriers. Design, Development & Service Histories. Seaforth. UK, p295.
- ^ Bebbington. Page 59.
- ^ Phoenix Squadron p42-43
- ^ Smith, Lionel A. "Images from Ark Royal's sixth commission – page 7 Russians". Lionel's home page. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
- ^ Phoenix Squadron p33-34
- ISBN 978-0552152907.
- ^ "Programme of the Silver Jubilee Fleet Review" (PDF). www.AxfordsAbode.org.uk. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
- ^ J. Stocker, in '60s and 70s Warriors'. Warships International Fleet Review, May 2007, p.47–8
- ^ "Jump jets return as Government scraps 'cats and traps' plan for future carriers". Navy News. Royal Navy. 10 May 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
Bibliography
- Beaver, Paul (1979). Ark Royal, A pictorial history of the Royal Navy's last conventional aircraft carrier. Cambridge, England: Patrick Stephens.[ISBN missing]
- Bebbington, Dene (April 2017). "Ark Royal". Ships Monthly. pp. 56–59.[ISBN missing]
- Blackman, Raymond (1973). Ships of the Royal Navy. London, England: Macdonald and Jane's.[ISBN missing]
- Chesneau, Roger (1984). Aircraft Carriers of the World, 1914 to the Present: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. ISBN 9780870219023.
- Gardiner, Robert (1983). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947–1982. London, England: Conway Maritime Press.[ISBN missing]
- Hobbs, David (October 2007). "HMAS Melbourne (II) – 25 years on". The Navy. Vol. 69, no. 4. ISSN 1322-6231.
- Hobbs, David (2013). British Aircraft Carriers: Design, Development and Service Histories. ISBN 978-1-84832-138-0.
Further reading
- Britain's Atomic Age Carrier, September 1955, Popular Mechanics early article after Ark Royal's commission with drawing and illustrations