HMS Ark Royal (R09)
HMS Ark Royal with Phantom FG1 and Buccaneer S2 aircraft on deck, 1976 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| 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 & 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 & 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 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 an angled flight deck at its commissioning; her sister ship, HMS Eagle, was the Royal Navy's first angle-decked aircraft carrier after modification in 1954. Ark Royal was the only non-United States vessel to operate the McDonnell Douglas Phantom at sea.