HMS Ark Royal (R09) — Audacious-Class Aircraft Carrier Model, 30 in
HMS Ark Royal (R09) — Audacious-Class Aircraft Carrier Model, 30 in
How big is it?
Length about 76 cm / 30.0 in. Drawn to scale; the model outline is a simplified shape.
Model details
- Size
- 30 in / 76 cm
- Construction
- Handcrafted
- Condition
- Fully assembled, ready to display
- Display
- Wooden base with brass nameplate
- Collection
- Battle Ship Models
- Item no.
- CM469
The last conventional aircraft carrier the Royal Navy ever operated, at 30 inches.
Specification
- 30 inches
- Handcrafted hull and superstructure
- Angled flight deck with catapults and arrestor detail
- Island, radar arrays, masts and deck aircraft
- Mounted on a display base with nameplate
- Fully assembled
The ship
Commissioned in 1955 and known throughout the fleet as the Mighty Ark, she flew Phantoms and Buccaneers from steam catapults — the last British ship able to operate conventional fixed-wing aircraft at sea.
She became genuinely famous in 1976, when the BBC documentary series Sailor followed her deployment and turned her crew into household names. Rod Stewart's Sailing was used as the theme and went back into the charts because of it.
She decommissioned in 1979, and with her went Britain's fixed-wing carrier capability for over thirty years.