HMS Ark Royal (R09) — Audacious-Class Aircraft Carrier Model, 36 in
HMS Ark Royal (R09) — Audacious-Class Aircraft Carrier Model, 36 in
How big is it?
Length about 91 cm / 36.0 in. Drawn to scale; the model outline is a simplified shape.
Model details
- Size
- 36 in / 91 cm
- Construction
- Handcrafted
- Condition
- Fully assembled, ready to display
- Display
- Wooden base with brass nameplate
- Collection
- Battle Ship Models
- Item no.
- CM600
The larger edition of the Mighty Ark, at 36 inches.
Specification
- 36 inches
- Handcrafted hull and superstructure
- Angled flight deck with catapults, arrestor wires and deck markings
- Island, radar arrays, masts, lifts and deck aircraft
- Mounted on a display base with nameplate
- Fully assembled
Three British inventions
Ark Royal operated with all three of the innovations that made modern carrier aviation possible, every one of them British: the angled deck, which let a pilot who missed the wires go around instead of crashing into parked aircraft; the steam catapult, which could launch jets heavy enough to be useful; and the mirror landing aid, which gave the pilot a glide path he could read himself.
Every carrier in the world uses all three. Britain gave them away and then spent thirty years without a fixed-wing carrier.
Service
Commissioned 1955, decommissioned 1979. Flew Phantoms and Buccaneers, and starred in the BBC's Sailor in 1976.