HMS Ark Royal (R09)

HMS Ark Royal with Phantom FG.1 and Buccaneer S.2 aircraft on deck, 1976
History
United Kingdom
Name:	Ark Royal
Ordered:	mid-1942
Builder:	Cammell Laird
Laid down:	3 May 1943
Launched:	3 May 1950
Commissioned:	25 February 1955
Decommissioned:	14 February 1979
Struck:	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:	36,800 tons (as built) 43,060 tons 53,950 tons full load(1978)
Length:	804 ft (245 m)
Beam:	112 ft (34 m) (as built) 171 ft (52 m)(1978)
Draught:	10 m (33 ft) standard 9.5 m (31 ft) deep
Propulsion:	8 Admiralty 3-drum boilers in 4 boiler rooms 4 sets of Parsons geared turbines, 4 shafts Power: 152,000 shp (113,000 kW)
Speed:	31.5 knots (58.3 km/h)
Range:	7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km) at 14 knots (26 km/h) 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km) at 24 knots (44 km/h)
Complement:	2,250 (2,640 inc. air staff)
Sensors and processing systems:	list error: list item missing markup (help) After 1970: Type 974 Navigation Radar 2 x Type 965 Long Range Air Search Radar Type 963 Carrier Controlled Approach Radar Radar types 986 used in sync with 965,987x2 Fwd and aft hight finding ,993 Medium range all E/F band radars
Armament:	As built: 16 × 4.5 inch (113 mm) guns (8 × 2) 52 × 40 mm Bofors (6 × 6, 2 × 2, 12 × 1) 1969 refit: none
Aircraft carried:	As built: 50 38 after 1967–1970 refit

HMS Ark Royal (R09) was an Audacious-class aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy and, when she was decommissioned in 1979, was the Royal Navy's last remaining conventional catapult and arrested-landing aircraft carrier. She was the first aircraft carrier to be equipped with angled flight deck since its commission, although her sister ship, HMS Eagle, was the Royal Navy's first aircraft carrier to be equipped with such system (after modification in 1954).

Ark Royal was the sister ship to HMS Eagle, which was initially named HMS Audacious, hence the name of the class. Four Audacious-class ships were laid down, but two (HMS Africa and the original HMS Eagle) were cancelled when World War II ended, and construction of the other two was suspended for several years. Both surviving ships were extensively upgraded throughout their lifetimes.

The ship was originally designated Irresistible, but was renamed Ark Royal prior to launch. The immediately previous Ark Royal, also an aircraft carrier, was torpedoed off Gibraltar on 14 November 1941 with the loss of one member of the ship's company.

She was launched in 1950, and her completion took five more years. 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 Edward Chambré Hardman. This has been exhibited many times under the name 'Where Great Ships Are Built' and later 'Birth of the Ark Royal'. When commissioned, she had a 5.5° partially angled flight deck, two steam catapults capable of launching aircraft weighing up to 30,000 pounds (14,000 kg), a deck-edge lift on the port side (the first British ship to be fitted with such a device), modified armament, and the new mirror landing system. Ark Royal was the first ship to be constructed with an angled flight deck and steam catapults, as opposed to having them added after launching. These innovations allowed aircraft to land and take off from the carrier at the same time. Her flight deck as built was 800 by 112 feet (244 by 34 m).