H.M.S. Eagle
R.05
1954
(Spider Navy SN-3-10)
- Class: Audacious - 2 aircraft carriers of 1944
- Displacement: 36,800 tons standard / 49,950 tons deep load
- Dimensions: 720' (pp) 803'9" (oa) x 112'9" x 35'7"
- Machinery: Parsons geared turbines, 8 Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 4 shafts, 152,000 shp = 30.5 knots
- Guns: 16-4.5in (8x2), 61-40mm (8x6+2x2+9x1)
- Protection: 4.5in waterline belt, 4in-1.5in flight deck, 1.5in hangar sides, 2.5-1.5in hangar deck
- Aircraft: 80
- Complement: 2,250
- Builder: Harland & Wolff, Belfast
- Keel Laid: 24 Oct 1942
- Launched: 19 Mar 1946
- Completed: 1 Oct 1951
- Notes: Laid down as Audacious, lead ship of a planned four improved Implacables, she was well advanced by the end of the war, and completed at a slow pace, while two were cancelled and sister Ark Royal was completed later to a modified design. Name changed to Eagle just before launch in 1946. Largest ever Royal Navy carrier when completed, she initially operated Attackers, Firebrands, and Fireflys; later Sea Hornets, Sea Hawks, ASW Avengers, AEW Skyraiders and a Dragon-fly helicopter. She was refit in 1954-55 with a 5° angled deck and mirror landing system. In Nov 1956 she participated in Operation Musketeer, the Anglo-French Suez Canal campaign, flying Sea Hawks, Wyverns and Sea Venoms. From 1959-64 she had a major rebuild at Devonport, receiving an 8° angled deck, steam catapults, new radars, while the close-range armament was replaced by six quadruple Seacat SAM systems. Aircraft embarked dropped to 35 fixed-wing and 10 helicopters. In 1964 she operated in the Far East to contain the Indonesian Confrontation, then later to Aden, and to Rhodesia to enforce the 'Beira patrol.' She was paid off in 1972 after Britain's 1966 decision to axe the carriers, on the (false) grounds she could not operate Phantoms. Although officially in reserve for several years, she was progressively cannibalized to provide spares for Ark Royal, and finally sent to the breakers in 1978.
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