Joe Straczek helped with details of RN carrier movements in Australia and the Far East after 1945 and Terry Hetherington, manager of the Fleet Air Arm Museum at RANAS Nowra, helped search for photographs. Each chapter on an aircraft carrier class contains a technical description of the design, drawings, photographs and an individual history of each ship in the class.
C HAPTER 1
ADMIRALTY INTEREST IN AVIATION 1908- 1911
In the 1911/12 issue of The Navy League Annual, a chapter by Frank WB Hambling entitled "The Airplane in Naval Warfare" stated that "a little common sense would indicate that the necessary type is one capable of to with and from our Navy, from resting on and rising from the water. The R1 had two crews that would have alternated to maximize time in the air, with one of two lieutenants in charge of each.
Individual ship history Hermione
Petrol would have been carried in two-litre cans obtained from the car trade, where they could be dumped over the side into the sea if necessary, as this was a major fire hazard. During replenishment, it would have been transferred to the airship by hand pump through hoses, a slow and laborious business that would take several hours.
C HAPTER 2
EARLY SHIP TRIALS AND DEMONSTRATIONS
Aircraft operating data
Sailors are finishing up the installation of the canvas screen on the back of the plane and are working on the runway just forward of the bow. On a practical level, the Hermes experiment demonstrated the need for long arms to keep the aircraft clear of the ship's side when landing on or taking off from the water.
Individual ship histories Africa
She commissioned for duty with the AF on 2 January 1907, but transferred to the CF in February, under the banner of second-in-command. In April 1907 she was reduced to reserve as part of the HF based at the Nore.
C HAPTER 3
SEAPLANE CARRIERS
The bottom of the hangar rested on the number 5 deck, the lowest continuous deck in the fuselage. Note the slope of the deck, which was intended to help aircraft accelerate to airspeed in the short distance available.
Aircraft operating details
The planes were pushed forward out of the hangar into a working space and then lifted by driller to the flight deck. The forward flight deck arrangement was the same, with a sliding hatch to allow derricks to move aircraft from the hangar to the deck.
Albatross
Individual ship histories Ark Royal/Pegasus
She was completed by Dumbarton Brothers in April 1907 and requisitioned by the Admiralty on 11 August 1914. She was assigned to the Harwich Force and used in the North Sea on anti-aircraft patrols along the River Nore.
C HAPTER 4
FURIOUS AND VINDICTIVE
The moldings on the starboard side of the aft pup are supports for the hatch covers removed from the hangar entrance. The roof of the hangar was extended to the bow, forming a cockpit 60 meters long and between 17 meters and 10 meters wide, supported by a latticework structure of girders.
The world’s first carrier landing
By then the wind had picked up and he was moving too high and too far forward of the ideal position across the deck. Photos show the port wing lifting, probably due to 'cliff edge' effect at the narrower part of the deck.
Modification in 1918
As in all subsequent British aircraft carriers, the elevator platforms formed part of the flight deck when the elevator was in opposition. At the rear of the rear hangar was a door through which seaplanes could be moved to be lowered onto the water by crane.
Major reconstruction
With no island, she was controlled from two positions forward of the flight deck. Ship's navigation was continued from the small bridge structure on the forward starboard side of the flight deck.
Individual ship hist ories Furious
After completion she was refitted at Liverpool and joined the HF for the last time in October 1943. In 1948 she was sold to the British Iron and Steel Corporation to be broken up for scrap.
C HAPTER 5
A RGUS
Pipe intakes rose on either side of the ship and then led to ducts running back into the open space between the hangar roof and the flight deck. Ring stacks surrounded the ducts, along which cooling air was directed by electric fans and flue gases were exhausted from the rear end of the flight deck.
Modernisation for use as a training carrier
Navigation while in flight was done from positions on either side of the cockpit forward, as with the rebuilt Furious. Originally there were two elevators, but this was subsequently removed in 1936, so that only the large one remained at the front end of the hangar.
Individual ship history Argus
In May 1941 she formed part of the escort for convoy WS8B to the Middle East before returning to resume landing training duties in the Clyde. In September, Argus returned to the Tyne for a refit, after which she resumed duties as a deck landing training carrier in the Clyde.
C HAPTER 6
E AGLE
Technical background
On the China station, her aircraft usually looked for pirate junk and attacked groups of 'robbers' on the coast at the request of the Chinese authorities to do so. Responding to fears that Bismarck was about to break out and might succeed in moving into the South Atlantic, Eagle left Cape Town in company with Nelson for a 'long stop' on 13 May 1941 to step; a planned boiler cleaning has been cancelled.
C HAPTER 7
HERMES
It was also accessible via a steel grate at the rear of the hangar. She took part in the Royal Fleet Review at Spithead on 20 May 1937 and was then reduced to reserve at Devonport, where she was used as an accommodation ship.
C HAPTER 8
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CARRIERS IN OTHER NAVIES
The United States Navy
The elevator platform was in the center of the flight deck and was locked at flight deck level during flight operations. Using the new dive-bombing technique to 'attack' the locks, they caught the defenders completely unawares, demonstrating the aircraft's operational value to the 'independent'.
The Imperial Japanese Navy Hosho
The former upper deck became the hangar deck and the sides were extended two-thirds of the ship's length up to the flight deck to make it semi-enclosed. Like Akagi, she originally had two flying decks, but these were removed after 1934 when the flight deck was extended the full length of the fuselage and the hangars extended forward.
The French Navy
The flight deck extended the length of the fuselage, with pronounced tapers and roundings at both extremities. In every other fleet, the lifting platforms formed part of the flight deck when in the raised position, leaving a hole when lowered.
Early aircraft carrier completion dates
C HAPTER 9
COURAGEOUS CLASS
Courageous's flight deck ended abruptly with a very short landing at the bottom of the hangar and she had a seaplane handling deck built over the quarter deck. The Glorious had a longer round bottom curve extending right aft, supported by a large W-shaped brace at the rear end of the quarter-berth.
Individual ship histories Courageous
In March 1937 she took part in exercises with more than a hundred ships of the HF and MF in the Atlantic. Late in the day she was ordered to transfer the balance of 803 NAS to Ark Royal and return to the UK.
C HAPTER 10
ARK ROYAL
By the mid-1930s, carriers were expected to operate 'in support of' the battle fleet, but not 'the battle line'. It was a purely aerodynamic design to even out the airflow over the rear of the tire.
The silver Ark Royal bell
The island and much of the flight deck were torn off like the lid of a sardine can as she turned the keel up, and about the same time a 200ft long section of the bow broke away from the main hull and spiraled towards the bottom, scattering debris in the process. This raises questions about the integrity of the welded hull, given the unexpected severity of damage from a single torpedo hit and the catastrophic failure of the hull when submerged.
Individual ship history
This too was unsuccessful, and after losing nine aircraft, Ark Royal returned to the UK for a brief refit. Ark Royal's last sortie was Operation Perpetual, for which she sailed on 12 November in company with Argus.
C HAPTER 11
ILLUSTRIOUS CLASS – FIRST GROUP
The third was the only one to hit the armored section of the cockpit. It defeated the armor forward of the aft elevator and exploded before hitting the hangar deck.
Individual ship histories Illustrious
Victorious (nearest) and implacable side-by-side in Sydney after the end of the Pacific War. Following this, Avengers replaced Barracudas and Victorious joined Indomitable, Illustrious and Indefatigable as part of the 1st ACS in the BPF.
C HAPTER 12
INDOMITABLE
Action damage
The forward part of the flight deck was widened, strengthened and streamlined to be more like that of the new light naval carriers in appearance. There was also an 'YE' aircraft homing beacon on a mast attached to the funnel and a Type 963 carrier-controlled approach radar on the aft part of the island.
Individual ship history Indomitable
When this work was completed in August, she became the flagship of the 11th ACS flying the flag of Rear Admiral CH J Harcourt. In 1951 she recommissioned and became the flagship of the HF when she flew under its C-in-C, Admiral Sir Philip Vian.
C HAPTER 13
IMPLACABLE GROUP
Indefatigable arrived in Sydney along with the bulk of the BPF on 10 February to prepare for operations against the Japanese in the Pacific. In the last dogfight of the war, 24 Wing Seafires shot down eight Zeros, losing one of their number.
C HAPTER 14
BRITISH-BUILT ESCORT CARRIERS AND MAC-SHIPS
Windshields were fitted to the side of the deck aft which could be pulled up to provide some protection for the aircraft from the weather, but all maintenance, refueling and rearming had to be done on deck. Pilots were accommodated in the former passenger cabins, and very little of the ship below the cockpit was changed.
