HMS Ark Royal (R09) - Legacy

Legacy

While "Ark Royal's" career spanned 29 years from the time of her launching (and her name was a household word), she spent more time in refits and modernisation (12 years) than she did in commissioned service (11 years), and required a lot of work from her engineers to keep her serviceable between yard work. The Eagle spent far more time at sea. The scrapping of Ark Royal in 1980, two years after her sister Eagle, marked the end of conventional fixed-wing aircraft operation aboard Royal Navy carriers. She had borne so many new inventions, yet her replacement was not equipped with any of these. There was some discussion about preserving her as a museum ship, and some private funds were raised; the Ministry of Defence would not sanction these efforts. The Fleet Air Arm Museum has subsequently mimicked the ship's island and flight deck in its central hall as an Aircraft Carrier Experience exhibition.

The Centaur-class aircraft carrier HMS Hermes remained in service after her, but had been converted to a helicopter commando carrier in 1971 and then as a V/STOL carrier. The one much smaller Invincible-class carrier currently in service could carry only vertical/short takeoff and landing aircraft and helicopters. The two new Queen Elizabeth class carriers due to enter service in 2016 and 2018 were originally intended to be configured as conventional CATOBAR (catapult assisted takeoff and barrier/arrested recovery) aircraft carriers. In May 2012 it was announced by the Defence Secretary Philip Hammond that the Government would not press ahead with ‘cats and traps’ and the traditional carrier version of the Joint Strike Fighter (F35C), but revert to the jump jet variant (F35B) because of “unacceptable” spiralling costs and delays.