HMS Eagle (R05)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Eagle.

History
United Kingdom
Builder	Harland and Wolff
Laid down	24 October 1942
Launched	19 March 1946
Commissioned	5 October 1951
Decommissioned	1972
Homeport	HMNB Devonport
Fate	Scrapped 1978
Notes	Pennant: R05
General characteristics
Displacement	36,800 long tons (37,400 t) standard (1951) 46,000 long tons (47,000 t) full load (1951) 43,060 long tons (43,750 t) standard (1957) 54,100 long tons (55,000 t) standard (1964)
Length	811.8 ft (247.4 m) (1951?) 720 ft (220 m) pp (1964) 720 ft (220 m) oa (1964)
Beam	135 ft (41 m) overall (1951?) 112.8 ft (34.4 m) hull (1964) 171 ft (52 m) overall width (1964)
Draught	33.25 ft (10.13 m) (1951) 36 ft (11 m) (1964)
Propulsion	4 shaft geared steam turbines 8 boilers 152,000 shp
Speed	31 knots (36 mph; 57 km/h)
Range	7,000 nmi (13,000 km) at 18 knots (21 mph; 33 km/h)
Complement	2,500 (average); 2,750 (max.)
Armament	As built: • 16 × 4.5 inch guns (8×2) • 61 × 40 mm guns (8×6, 2×2, 9×1) Post-1964 re-fit: • 8 × 4.5 inch guns (4×2) • 6 × Seacat SAM missile launchers
Armour	Waterline belt: 4 in (100 mm) Armoured flight deck: 1–4 in (25–102 mm) Hangar side: 1 in (25 mm) Hangar deck: 1 in (25 mm)
Aircraft carried	As built: 60 Post-1964: 45
Notes	1951: standard axial flight deck 1954: 5.5º angled flight deck 1964: 8.5º angled flight deck

HMS Eagle was an aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy, in service 1951-1972. With her sister ship Ark Royal, she is one of the two largest British aircraft carriers yet built.

She was initially laid down in 1942 at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast as one of four ships of the Audacious-class aircraft carrier. These were laid down during World War II as part of the British naval buildup during that conflict. However, two were cancelled at the end of hostilities, and the remaining two were suspended. Originally designated Audacious, she was finally launched as Eagle (the fifteenth Royal Navy ship to receive this name) in March 1946, after the Audacious class carrier Eagle was cancelled.

A number of changes were incorporated into the design, although Eagle was launched too early to see an angled flight deck installed, and the ship was commissioned in October 1951. A year later she took part in the first large NATO naval exercise, Exercise Mainbrace.

Service

A 5.5 degree 'interim' angled flight deck was fitted in 1954-1955 with a mirror landing sight, but she retained her two hydraulic catapults forward as they were adequate for the relatively light naval aircraft in service at the time. Her first wartime service came in 1956, when she took part in the Suez Crisis. The ship's aircraft of that period included Westland Wyverns, Douglas Skyraiders, Armstrong Whitworth Sea Hawks and de Havilland Sea Venoms.

The admiralty had originally planned to give the Eagle a complete rebuild on the lines of HMS Victorious, but due to high costs this was abandoned. Eagle was instead given a more austere, but still extensive modernization. The changes included major improvements to the accommodation, including the installation of air conditioning. The island was completely rebuilt and the new 3D Type 984 radar was to be installed. The flight deck was modified and included a new 2½ inch armoured deck with a full 8.5 degree angle, two new steam catapults were fitted as well as new arrester gear and mirror sights. As well, an overhaul of the DC electrical systems, AC generators was fitted to give additional power. It was decided that Eagle would have her anti-aircraft guns removed and replaced by the Sea Cat missile system. All of Eagle’s original machinery and equipment was fully overhauled. This refit was budgeted to cost around £11 million and although expensive was still three times cheaper than building a new ship, it was expected that this refit would allow the Eagle to operate until the early 1980’s.

In 1959 Eagle entered Devonport Dockyard to begin this extensive refit. By 1964 the refit was complete although at a significantly increased cost which had seen the original plan to install a new armoured deck abandoned. Standard displacement had increased to around 44,000 tons (full load displacement was 50,786 tons) and Eagle was now the largest most capable aircraft carrier in the Royal Navy. The refit was intended to extend her operational life for another twenty years to the mid 1980s if necessary, and Eagle now operated Blackburn Buccaneer, de Havilland Sea Vixen, Supermarine Scimitar and Fairey Gannet aircraft.

Final Air Wing 1971

• 899 sqn. 12 Sea Vixen FAW2
• 800 sqn. 14 Buccaneer S2
• 849 sqn. D flt. 4 Gannet AEW3, 1 Gannet COD4
• 826 sqn. 6 Sea King HAS1
• Ships Flight 2 Wessex HAS1 (SAR)

In early 1966 she 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 recommissioned in 1967. Eagle was originally intended to receive a further refit that would have enabled her to comfortably operate the McDonnell Douglas Phantom("Eagle" had already successfully operated them in trials). Her two BS5 catapults fitted in her 59-64 refit were already powerful enough to launch fully laden F-4s, but her Jet Blast Deflectors were still of the older steel plate design, and the reheated exhaust of the Phantom's RR Spey engines required water cooled deflector plates. It was also planned to fit bridle catchers to the catapults as a cost saving measure, as the bridles would otherwise be lost after a single launch. 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 were sprayed on the deck plate (which was seen to glow white hot) to cool it down before the next aircraft could be loaded onto the cat. Plans to upgrade Eagle fully were cancelled in 1968 even though it would have only cost around £5 million compared to the £32 million spent on Ark Royal which was considered to be in significantly worse material state than Eagle. 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.

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. Despite being the RNs most modern carrier, in excellent material condition, and capable of another 10 years of service, Eagle was paid off (many in the RN believed she should have been retained, and Ark Royal decommissioned instead) in January 1972 at Portsmouth, 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 out 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 in October 1978 to Cairnryan near Stranraer in Scotland to be broken up, clearing her mooring space for her sister. Eagle was completely broken up by the time her sister arrived at Cairnryan in November 1980. One of her anchors (along with one of Ark Royal's) stands guard at the entrance to the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton.

References

• Raymond Blackman, Ships of the Royal Navy (Macdonald and Jane's, London, 1973)
• 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.
• Neil McCart, HMS Eagle 1942- 1978 (Fan Publications, Cheltenham, 1996. ISBN 0 9519538 8 5)

External links

• Maritimequest HMS Eagle photo gallery
• HMS Eagle homepage