HMS Eagle at flying stations in the Mediterranean, January 1970.
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History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name: | HMS Eagle |
Builder: | Harland and Wolff |
Yard number: | 1220 |
Laid down: | 24 October 1942 |
Launched: | 19 March 1946 |
Completed: | 31 October 1951 |
Commissioned: | 5 October 1951 |
Decommissioned: | 26 January 1972 |
Homeport: | HMNB Devonport |
Identification: | Pennant: R05 |
Nickname(s): | The Big E |
Fate: | Scrapped 1978 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Audacious-class aircraft carrier |
Displacement: |
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Propulsion: |
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Speed: | 31 knots (36 mph; 57 km/h) |
Range: | 7,000 nmi (13,000 km) at 18 knots (21 mph; 33 km/h) |
Complement: | 2,500 (average); 2,750 (max.) |
Armament: |
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Armour: |
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Notes: |
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HMS Eagle was an aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy, in service 1951–1972. With her sister ship Ark Royal, she was one of the two largest Royal Navy aircraft carriers yet built.
She was initially laid down on 24 October 1942 at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast as one of four ships of the Audacious class. These were laid down during World War II as part of the British naval buildup during that conflict. Two were cancelled at the end of hostilities, and the remaining two were suspended. Originally designated Audacious, she was renamed as Eagle (the fifteenth Royal Navy ship to receive this name), taking the name of the cancelled third ship of the class on 21 January 1946. She was finally launched by Princess Elizabeth on 19 March 1946.
Several 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. A year later she took part in the first large NATO naval exercise, Exercise Mainbrace.
In 1953 Eagle took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
A 5.5 degree 'interim' angled flight deck was fitted in 1954–1955 with a mirror landing sight, but she retained her two hydraulic catapults forward as they were adequate for the relatively light naval aircraft in service at the time. 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, Hawker Sea Hawks and de Havilland Sea Venoms.