Audacious class (1946)

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HMS Ark Royal (R09)
HMS Ark Royal (R09)
Overview
Type Aircraft carrier
units HMS Ark Royal (R09)

HMS Eagle (R05)

Shipyard

Cammell Laird , Birkenhead
Harland & Wolff , Belfast

Order 1930s
delivery 1951-1955
1. Period of service flag
period of service

1951-1978

Whereabouts Scrapped
Technical specifications
displacement

33,000 ts
after conversion: 43,340  ts (1978)

length

245 m (1950)
257 m (1969)

width

34.3 m (1950)
48.7 m (1969)

Draft

7.7 m (1950)
10.9 m (1969)

crew

2250 men

drive

8 three-drum steam boilers
(type Admiralty ),
4 Parsons turbines with single gear

speed

31 knots

Range

7000 nm at 14 knots

Planes

78
43 after 1969

The Audacious class was an aircraft carrier class in the Royal Navy . The two ships of the class originally planned for four ships served in the British Navy from 1955 to 1978.

history

Four ships of the class were laid down between 1942 and 1943, the HMS Africa (D06), HMS Ark Royal (91), HMS Audacious (D29) and the HMS Eagle (94). After the end of the Second World War , only two ships were completed.

HMS Eagle (94)
The original Eagle waslaid downat Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson in Newcastle upon Tyne in August 1942. In December of that year she was transferred to Vickers, but then canceled in January 1946.

HMS Africa (D06)
This ship wasorderedfrom Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. in Govan on July 12, 1943and was then to be converted to the new Malta class . The cancellation took place on October 15, 1945.

Audacious (D29) / HMS Eagle (R05)
 The later Eagle was laid down as Audacious (D29) in 1942 at Harland & Wolff , Belfast . After the loss of the Eagle in 1918 and the cancellation of the Eagle (94) , this ship received the traditional name. It was launched in 1946 and entered service in October 1951, nine years after it was ordered. It was decommissioned in 1972.

Irresistible / HMS Ark Royal (R09)
The Ark Royal received the traditional name after the loss of the Ark Royal in 1938 . She was laid down at Cammell, Laird & Company in Birkenhead in1943 , launched in 1950 and commissioned in 1955. She was the last ship to remain in service until 1978.

The two ships varied a lot because they were built at different shipyards and the construction took place at different speeds. Each ship was actually its own sub-class. Both ships were also subject to major changes during their service time.

construction

The first ship, the original Eagle , was laid down in 1942; her sister ships followed by 1943. With the end of the Second World War , the work was initially stopped and two of the ships were canceled in October 1945 ( Africa ) and in January 1946 (first Eagle ). After the resumption of construction, the (second) Eagle was launched on March 18, 1946, the commissioning with the British Navy took place on October 5, 1951. The Ark Royal was launched on May 3, 1950, but the completion took until on February 25, 1955, when the Ark Royal was put into service in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II .

commitment

The use of the ships was characterized by many overhauls, the Eagle was modernized from June 1954 to February 1955, she received a slightly angled flight deck . After modernization, she was moved to the Mediterranean, where she was involved in the fighting during the Suez Crisis in 1956.

For the Ark Royal , the first overhaul was due in 1956, in which the front guns were removed because they hindered flight operations on deck.

On May 11, 1959, the Eagle was decommissioned and went into dock in Devonport in October, where it was fundamentally modernized and overhauled by 1964.

At the Ark Royal in 1959 the other two front guns were removed during a further stay in the shipyard. During a further stay in the shipyard in 1964, all guns were removed and new radar systems installed on board. Between 1966 and 1970 the carrier was prepared for use with the F-4 Phantom during a long dock stay , which did not happen with the Eagle .

fate

In 1972 the Eagle came to an end after the British government had decided to do without supersonic aircraft in the Royal Navy in the long term . The Eagle served as a spare parts donor until the Ark Royal was decommissioned on December 4, 1978. Both ships were scrapped, the Eagle from October 1978, the Ark Royal from September 1980.

technology

In the course of the service life, the hull and especially the flight deck of the two ships were widened through various modifications and the maximum displacement increased.

It was driven by four Parsons geared turbines , which delivered their total power of 152,000 HP to four shafts with one screw each. The turbines got their steam from eight three-drum boilers from Admiralty. The maximum speed was 31.5 knots , the range was 6000 nautical miles with 6096 tons of bunkered heavy fuel oil at 24 knots.

The original anti-aircraft armament of 16 4.5-inch guns and 20 40-mm Bofors guns was reduced over the years, the heavy guns were expanded in favor of lighter 20-mm automatic cannons. In 1964, all guns were removed from both ships and preparations were made for the installation of Sea-Cat anti- aircraft missiles , but these were never installed.

Planes

The Ark Royal from above in 1970


Ship list

Identifier Surname shipyard Order Keel laying Launch Commissioning Decommissioning Whereabouts
94 eagle Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson , Newcastle upon Tyne August 1942 Canceled in January 1946
D06 Africa Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. , Govan July 12, 1943 Canceled on October 15, 1945
D29 Audacious Harland & Wolff , Belfast 1942 1946 October 1951 1972 renamed to Eagle (R05)
91 Irresistible Cammell, Laird & Company , Birkenhead 1943 1950 1955 1978 Renamed Ark Royal after the sinking of HMS Ark Royal (91) on November 13, 1941

See also

Additional information

literature

  • Richard Johnstone-Bryden: Britain's Greatest Warship: HMS "Ark Royal IV" . Sutton Publishing Ltd., Stroud, 2000. ISBN 0-7509-2504-3

Web links

Commons : Audacious class  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g hazegray.org , as of August 6, 2007
  2. ↑ a b R09 Ark Royal (Eagle Class) ( Memento from May 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), as of August 7, 2007