HMS Eagle (R05)
Mediterranean , January 1970
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History | |
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Name | HMS Eagle |
Builder | Harland and Wolff |
Yard number | 1220[1] |
Laid down | 24 October 1942 |
Launched | 19 March 1946 |
Completed | 1 October 1951[1] |
Commissioned | 1 March 1952 |
Decommissioned | 26 January 1972 |
Homeport | HMNB Devonport |
Identification | Pennant: R05 |
Nickname(s) | The Big E[citation needed] |
Fate | Scrapped 1978 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Audacious-class aircraft carrier |
Displacement | |
Length | |
Beam | |
Draught | |
Propulsion | |
Speed | 31 knots (36 mph; 57 km/h)[4] |
Range | 7,000 nmi (13,000 km) at 18 knots (21 mph; 33 km/h) |
Complement | 2,500 (average);[4] 2,750 (max.)[3] |
Armament | |
Armour |
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Aircraft carried |
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Notes |
HMS Eagle was an Audacious-class aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy, in service 1951–1972. Until the arrival of the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers in the 21st century, she and her sister Ark Royal were the two largest Royal Navy aircraft carriers ever built.
She was laid down on 24 October 1942 at
Although Eagle was completed in October 1951 without an
Design and construction
The Audacious-class aircraft carriers were intended as a larger follow-on to the Implacable-class of aircraft carriers with armoured hangars, with the design being modified before orders being placed to accommodate larger and heavier aircraft, which led to the displacement growing from the originally planned 27,000 long tons (27,433 t) to 32,500 long tons (33,022 t) by the time the ships were ordered.[7][8] Four ships were ordered, although one, Africa, was cancelled before construction began.[9][10]
The first of the class, Audacious was
As built, Eagle was 803 feet 9 inches (244.98 m)
Service
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/HMS_Eagle_%28R05%29_MOD_45139760.jpg/220px-HMS_Eagle_%28R05%29_MOD_45139760.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/HMS_Eagle_%28R05%29_MOD_45139767.jpg/220px-HMS_Eagle_%28R05%29_MOD_45139767.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/03_HMS_Eagle_inGibraltar_Jan1970.jpg/220px-03_HMS_Eagle_inGibraltar_Jan1970.jpg)
Eagle started
In early 1953 Eagle visited the Mediterranean, before returning to home waters when in June she took part in the
Eagle was refitted at
Eagle's first wartime service came in 1956, when she took part in the
Rebuild
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/Fairey_Gannet_AEW.jpg/220px-Fairey_Gannet_AEW.jpg)
The Admiralty had originally planned to give Eagle a complete rebuild on the lines of HMS Victorious, but due to high costs, plans to fit new geared steam turbines and a stretched hull were abandoned. Eagle was instead given a more austere but extensive modernization that provided greater radar and processing capability than the systems fitted to Victorious. The changes included major improvements to the accommodation, including the installation of air conditioning. The island was completely rebuilt and a 3D Type 984 radar was installed, with processing capacity to track and rank 100 targets, twice the capability of the early 984 system fitted to Hermes and Victorious. The flight deck was modified and included a new 2½ inch armoured deck with a full 8.5 degree angle, two new steam catapults (BS5s, 151 ft (46 m) stroke on the port side forward and 199 ft (61 m) stroke in the waist) were fitted as well as new arrester gear (DAX I) and mirror sights. As well as an overhaul of the DC electrical systems, AC generators were also fitted to give additional power.
It was decided that Eagle would have her anti-aircraft guns removed and replaced by the Seacat missile system, though her aft four 4.5 inch gun turrets were retained, and all of her original machinery and equipment would be fully overhauled.
In 1959 Eagle entered Devonport Dockyard to begin this extensive refit, and by May 1964 it was complete. Standard displacement had increased to around 44,100 tons (full load displacement was 54,100 tons)[11][26] and Eagle was now the largest aircraft carrier in the Royal Navy. Total cost of the refit was £31 million.[27] The refit was intended to extend her operational life for another 10 years, and she now operated Blackburn Buccaneer, de Havilland Sea Vixen, Supermarine Scimitar and Fairey Gannet aircraft, but water-cooled jet blast deflectors (needed to operate the RN Phantom fighters) were not fitted, and therefore the full potential of the ship was not realized. In 1964-5 it was claimed Eagle and the proposed CVA01 and half sized Hermes would be a viable three carrier fleet until 1980. Victorious would have been replaced by CVA01 in 1973. In reality the 1958 Royal Navy assessment was that with affordable modernization of the existing carrier fleet, only HMS Hermes would be effective after 1975,[28] and she was too small. These assessments by the Director of Naval Construction in November 1958 were very accurate,[citation needed] taking into account the slower than expected pace of reconstruction, corrosion of war-built hulls, the obsolete power trains except in Victorious, and the cheap unsatisfactory mix of DC electrics with AC add-on generators where needed in Eagle and Ark Royal.
Refit
In early 1966 Eagle was refitted at Devonport once more and was fitted with a single DAX II arrestor wire (no.3, her other wires were DAX I). She was recommissioned in 1967.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Buccaneer_Eagle_1971.jpg/220px-Buccaneer_Eagle_1971.jpg)
Eagle was originally intended to receive a further refit that would have enabled her to comfortably operate the
During the Phantom FG1 trials (involving three newly delivered aircraft operated by 700P NAS) the longer waist catapult was used, and a thick steel plate was chained to the deck behind the catapult to absorb the heat of the Phantom's afterburners. The JBD was not used as it would have been damaged, and after each launch fire hoses sprayed water on the deck plate to cool it down before the next aircraft could be loaded onto the catapult.
While fitting adequate blast deflectors and other minor changes for Phantom operation were estimated to cost no more than £5 million in 1968, refitting the ship to operate with a modern airgroup of Phantoms into the late 1970s was clearly going to cost much more, and the new Conservative government in 1970 confirmed plans to convert Hermes to a Commando carrier and withdraw Eagle. In February 1972, the Secretary of State for Defence, Lord Carrington, estimated refitting Eagle to operate Phantoms would cost £25–30 million,[29] and the overall manpower and cost requirements of operating two large strike carriers were beyond Britain, particularly as Ark Royal was expected to serve to the end of the 1970s with only two short refits.[30] To preserve Eagle in maintained or unmaintained reserve would require refits, estimated at around £4 million, every 3–4 years,[31] and maintenance crew of 350–400 Navy personnel for £1.5–2 million a year. Reactivation would take four and a half months to a year,[32] while maintaining a Sea Vixen squadron was unjustified expense for aircraft that were obsolete. The refit of Ark Royal cost £32 million to allow operations of a fully modern airwing, though it was generally accepted that even after her return to service she considered to be in a significantly worse overall material state in comparison to Eagle.[33] Of the 48 Phantom FG1s ordered for the FAA, 20 were diverted to the RAF equipping 43 Sqn, though some were loaned back to the Navy to equip the Phantom FG1 training unit 767 NAS which trained both RN and RAF Phantom crews until it was disbanded in 1972.
Decommissioning
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/HMS_Eagle_%28R05%29_laid_up_at_Plymouth%2C_13_January_1973.jpg/220px-HMS_Eagle_%28R05%29_laid_up_at_Plymouth%2C_13_January_1973.jpg)
The 1966 decision to run-down the RN fixed wing carrier fleet (Centaur had already been laid up as an accommodation ship, and Victorious was soon to be prematurely scrapped, following a minor fire) meant Eagle's days were numbered. Eagle was paid off in January 1972 at Portsmouth after 20 years and 4 months of service, and was stripped of reusable equipment (radars and missile systems primarily), after which she was towed to Devonport where she was placed in reserve and moored in a stretch of the River Tamar known as the Hamoaze. In 1974, she was released from her moorings, towed up river, and secured in number 10 Dock, Devonport Dockyard, where she was further stripped of essential spares for Ark Royal, before being towed back to her mooring position.
Up until 1976 she was officially still in reserve, but having been exhausted as a source of spares for Ark Royal, Eagle was then sold for scrap and towed from Devonport on 14 October 1978 to Cairnryan near Stranraer to be broken up, clearing her mooring space for her sister and arriving there five days later. The lower hull of Eagle was still being broken up when her sister Ark Royal arrived at Cairnryan for demolition on 28 September 1980.[34] One of her anchors (along with one of Ark Royal's) stands guard at the entrance to the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton.
Squadron | Aircraft type | Number of aircraft |
Role |
---|---|---|---|
800 NAS | Buccaneer S2 | 14 | Strike |
899 NAS | Sea Vixen FAW2 | 12 | Fleet Air Defence |
849D NAS | Gannet AEW3 |
4 | Airborne Early Warning |
Gannet COD4 | 1 | Carrier On-Board Delivery | |
826 NAS | Sea King HAS1 | 6 | Anti-Submarine Warfare |
Ships Flight | Wessex HAS1 | 2 | Search and Rescue |
See also
Notes
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7524-8861-5.
- ^ a b Jane's Fighting Ships 1955–56 page 286
- ^ a b c d e f g h Jane's Fighting Ships 1967–68 page 286
- ^ ISBN 0-9519538-8-5page 148
- ^ a b c d Brown 1972, p. 20.
- S2CID 253161552.
- ^ Chesneau 1998, pp. 134–135.
- ^ Brown 2012, pp. 52–53.
- ^ Brown 2012, p. 53.
- ^ a b Chesneau 1998, p. 135.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, p. 497.
- ^ Brown and Moore 2012, pp. 18–19.
- ^ Brown and Moore 2012, p. 19.
- ^ Chesneau 1998, pp. 135, 137.
- ^ a b Chesneau 1998, p. 134.
- ^ Brown 1972, p. 27.
- ^ a b Blackman 1960, p. 11.
- ^ Brown 1972, pp. 20–21.
- ^ Flight 26 September 1952, p. 403.
- ^ Flight 3 October 1952, p. 454.
- ^ a b Brown 1971, p. 21.
- ^ Souvenir Programme, Coronation Review of the Fleet, Spithead, 15th June 1953, HMSO, Gale and Polden.
- ^ Brown 1971, pp. 21–22.
- ^ Brown 1971, p. 22.
- ^ McHart, Neil (1996). "HMS Eagle 1942–1975". The Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
- ^ Chesneau 1998, p. 138.
- ^ Blackman 1971, p. 332.
- ^ D.K Brown. Rebuilding the RN. Warship Design . Seaforth (2012)UK, p58
- ^ Hansard HC 22 February 1972,Defence Estimates debate, line 491. Sec of State for Defence
- ^ Hansard HL 9/3/1972, Defence Estimates debate, lines 296-7
- ^ Hansard 4/7/1972
- ^ Hansard 9/3/72. Sec of State for Defence
- ^ CVA-01 Archived 14 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine – Navy Matters
- ISBN 1872350224page 38-42
- ^ "Royal Navy Aircraft Carriers Part 3". Archived from the original 11 October 2012.
Sources
![]() | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (May 2008) |
- Blackman, Raymond V. B. Jane's Fighting Ships 1960–61. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd., 1960.
- Blackman, Raymond V. B. Jane's Fighting Ships 1971–72. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co Ltd, 1971. ISBN 0-354-00096-9.
- Blackman, Raymond. Ships of the Royal Navy. London: Macdonald and Jane's, 1973.
- Brown, David. Carrier Air Groups: HMS Eagle. Windsor, UK: Hylton Lacy, 1972. ISBN 0-85064-103-9.
- Brown, David K. Nelson to Vanguard: Warship Design and Development 1923–1945. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing, 2012. ISBN 978-1-84832-149-6.
- Brown, David K. and Moore, George. Rebuilding the Royal Navy: Warship Design Since 1945. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing, 2012. ISBN 978-1-84832-150-2.
- Chesneau, Roger. Aircraft Carriers of the World, 1914 to the Present: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. London: Brockhampton Press, 1998. ISBN 1-86019-875-9.
- Gardiner, Robert and Stephen Chumbley. Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995. Annapolis, Ma, USA:Naval Institute Press, 1995. ISBN 1-55750-132-7.
- McCart, Neil. HMS Eagle 1942–1978. Cheltenham, UK: Fan Publications, 1996. ISBN 0-9519538-8-5.
- "The NATO Exercises: Part I: The Overall Picture: Mainbrace". Flight, Vol. LXII, Issue 2279, 26 September 1952, pp. 402–404.
- "The NATO Exercises: Part II: Flying with the Hold Fast Squadrons: Last Phases of Mainbrace". Flight, Vol. LXII, Issue 2280, 3 October 1952, pp. 449–454.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Maritimequest HMS Eagle photo gallery
- HMS Eagle homepage
- https://rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/7590/hms-eagle-visit-1971 - dummy attack on HMS Eagle by No. 75 Squadron RNZAF, 1971