Career
Ordered:
Laid down:	3 May 1943
Launched:	3 May 1950
Commissioned:	28 February 1955
Decommissioned:	1978
Fate:	Scrapped in 1980
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	43,060 tons
Length:	804 feet
Beam:	135 feet
Draught:	33 feet
Propulsion:
Speed:	32 kts
Range:	7000 miles at 14 knots
Complement:	2500
Armament:
Aircraft:	78 initially 43 in 1970
Motto:

The HMS Ark Royal (R09) began construction in 1943 during World War II. She replaced the previous Ark Royal which was lost to enemy action earlier in the war. The Ark Royal was the Royal Navy's last conventional catapult and arrested landing aircraft carrier, later aircraft carriers of the Invincible-class were known initially as "Through Deck Cruisers" and carried vertical/short takeoff and landing aircraft.

The Ark Royal was the sister ship to the HMS Eagle, initially HMS Audacious, hence the name of the class. Both ships were upgraded throughout their lifetime.

Initially the ship had a complement of 78 aircraft comprising of Sea Hawks , Gannets, Skyraiders and various helicopters. The initial 16 4.5" guns were replaced by 1964 with 18 anti-aircraft 20mm cannons.

The Ark Royal was the second aircraft carrier to be rebuilt with an angled deck, allowing aircraft to land and take off from the carrier at the same time. She was also fitted with catapult assisted take-off, and hook-arrested landing gear.

By 1970 the Ark Royal now had a complement of 43 aircraft, comprising of F-4 Phantoms (added in 1970) and Buccaneers (added in 1963). She also had the honour of the first aircraft carrier to embark the Hawker P1127, which was developed later into the Hawker Siddeley Harrier.

She was involved in a notorious incident in 1970 when she collided with the Soviet destroyer Kotlin while it was shadowing Ark Royal (common practise during the Cold War) who was in the Mediterranean to participate in a NATO exercise. Ark Royal was damaged only slightly while the Soviet destroyer sustained significant damage.

The scrapping of the Ark Royal in 1980, two years after the Eagle had been scrapped, marked the end of fixed-wing naval operation aboard Royal Navy carriers. She had borne so many new inventions, and yet, was never replaced by a new carrier with them.

See HMS Ark Royal for other ships of the same name.