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HMS ''Ark Royal'' (R09) was an 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. Her sister ship, , was the Royal Navy's first aircraft carrier to be equipped with an angled flight deck. ==Construction and modifications== ''Ark Royal'' was the sister ship to , which was initially named HMS ''Audacious'', hence the name of the class. Four ''Audacious''-class ships were laid down, but two (HMS ''Africa'' and the original HMS ''Eagle'') were cancelled when World War II ended, and construction of the other two was suspended for several years. Both surviving ships were extensively upgraded throughout their lifetimes. The ship was originally designated ''Irresistible'', but was renamed ''Ark Royal'' prior to launch. The immediately previous ''Ark Royal'', also an aircraft carrier, was torpedoed off Gibraltar on 14 November 1941 with the loss of one member of the ship's company. She was launched in 1950, and her completion took five more years. In this time, she underwent redesign and, when completed, she was markedly different from her sister ship. Shortly before her launch from the Cammell Laird shipyard, an image of the ship painted with her white undercoat was captured by the pictorialist photographer Edward Chambré Hardman. This has been exhibited many times under the name 'Where Great Ships Are Built' and later 'Birth of the Ark Royal'. When commissioned, she had a 5.5° partially angled flight deck, two steam catapults capable of launching aircraft weighing up to , a deck-edge lift on the port side (the first British ship to be fitted with such a device), modified armament, and the new mirror landing system. ''Ark Royal'' was the first ship to be constructed with an angled flight deck and steam catapults, as opposed to having them added after launching.〔''HMAS Melbourne (II) – 25 Years On'', p6〕 These innovations allowed aircraft to land and take off from the carrier at the same time. Her flight deck as built was . About a year after commissioning, her forward port 4.5 inch (113 mm) guns were removed to improve aircraft operations over the angled deck. Four years later, the port deck-edge lift and the forward starboard 4.5 inch (113 mm) guns were also removed. After the 1964 refit only one twin 4.5-inch gun mount remained aft on port and starboard side.〔serving RN Maintainer〕 From 1967 to February 1970, she underwent a refit which was a major rebuild to her structure, but only an austere update to her electronic equipment, and was confined to changes needed to operate the RN's version of the Phantom. The refit cost around £30 million; far less than the modernisation of ''Eagle'' but also added several improvements, which allowed her to comfortably operate the larger Phantom and Buccaneer Mk.2 aircraft. Like ''Eagle'' her modifications included a full 8.5° angled flight deck, new and far more powerful steam catapults, bridle-catchers, heavy grade jet-blast deflectors (both of which ''Eagle'' did not receive), and heavy-weight arrestor cables.Twelve hundred miles of new cabling was installed,〔D. Hobbs. British Aircraft Carriers. Design, Development & Service Histories. Seaforth.(2013)UK, p295 〕 but the ship was not completely rewired and retained old DC electrics. A modified island (with a different arrangement from ''Eagle'') and a partially new electronic suite were also added, though some of her original radars, such as 983 heightfinders were retained and she did not receive the 3-D air-search radar set that her sister had fitted, instead two double array 966 versions of the standard RN 965 long range system were fitted and one of the new 986 sets. Significantly, ''Ark Royal'' was the first and only RN carrier fitted with USN carrier approach, AN-SPN 35 radar,〔 D. Hobbs. British Aircraft Carriers. Seaforth. (2013)UK, p295〕 increasing night aircraft operational capability and safety. Her flight deck size was increased port aft however, giving her extra deck-park space for her airgroup that ''Eagle'' did not have. She was also fitted for four Sea Cat missile launchers, but they were never installed, so she emerged from this refit with no defensive armament. Significantly, there was little more than an overhaul of her steam turbines and boilers; meaning that mechanically she was very dated, however the stripping out of ''Eagle'' meant that for a time essential spares were available. ''Ark Royal'' was then scheduled for at the most only five years more service by a new government policy to scrap the carriers by 1975. Intensive maintenance as well as a new programme of continuous servicing and repair (with RN maintenance ships always in her task groups), was able kept her going until late 1978, though increasing mechanical and electrical failures lead to her decommissioning in early 1979. Initially on entry into service, the ship had a complement of up to 50 aircraft comprising Sea Hawks, Sea Venoms, Gannets, Skyraiders and various helicopters. As later aircraft types grew in size and complexity, her air group fell to below 40 when she left service in 1978. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMS Ark Royal (R09)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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