Implacable class aircraft carrier
Encyclopedia : I : IM : IMP : Implacable class aircraft carrier
The Royal Navy built two Implacable-class aircraft carriers to succeed the Illustrious-class carriers during the Second World War. They were modifications of the HMS Indomitable (R92) design with double level hangars. Unfortunately the hangars were only 14 ft in height and thus limited the aircraft types which these ships could operate. A modernisation plan was considered after the end of the war. This would have involved replacing the double level hangar with a single 20 ft high structure, funds were however unavailable and the ships were retired after relatively brief careers.
General Characteristics
from Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships
- Displacement 23,450 tons standard (full load 32,000 tons).
- Length (o.a) 766 feet 2 in. (233.5 m) (Implacable) and 766 feet 5 in. (233.6 m), respectively.
- Beam: 95 feet 9 in. (29.2 m)
- Draught: 29 feet 4 in. (8.9 m)
- Machinery : Parsons single reduction geared turbines. 4 shafts, 148,000 hp
- Speed: 32 knots
- Fuel: 4690 tons oilfuel, 94650 gallons aviation fuel
- Armament: 16 4.5 inch dual purpose guns (4x2), 52 2 pdr pom pom (6x8, 1x4) 16 20mm
- Armour : 4.5 inch belt, 2 in hangar side, 3 in flight deck
- Aircraft: 72
- Crew: 1585 designed, up to 2300 in practice
Ships
The two ships built were launched in 1942:
- HMS Implacable- built by Fairfields in Govan
- HMS Indefatigable built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank
References
- DK Brown, Nelson to Vanguard, 2000, Chatham Publishing
- Anthony Preston, World's Worst Warships, 2002 Conway' Maritime Press
External link
| Implacable-class aircraft carrier |
| Implacable | Indefatigable |
| List of aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy |
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.