Royal Navy — Aircraft carrier class
Illustrious-class aircraft carrier
The class in numbers
- 6 Planned
- 4 Completed
- 4 Scrapped
Design and service
- Type
- Aircraft carrier
- Navy
- Royal Navy
- In commission
- 1940–1968
- Preceded by
- HMS Ark Royal (91)
- Succeeded by
- Implacable class
- Builders
- Vickers-Armstrongs (3), Harland & Wolff (1)
- Subclasses
- HMS Indomitable (R92)
Class specifications
Figures for the class as designed. Individual vessels varied, sometimes considerably — each vessel page carries its own configurations.
Illustrious, as built
- Displacement, standard
- 23,000 long tons (23,369 t)
- Length
- 225.55 m (740 ft) OA
- Speed
- 30.5 knots (56.5 km/h, 35.1 mph)
- Complement
- 1,229
- Armament
- 8 × twin QF 4.5-inch dual-purpose guns
- 6 × octuple QF 2-pdr anti-aircraft guns
Roster
Holding 3 of the 4 hulls recorded for this class. Vessels transferred to another navy are catalogued under the navy that sailed them and appear there instead.
| Vessel | Pennant | Commissioned | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|
| HMS Formidable (67) | 67 | 1940 | Scrapped 1953 |
| HMS Illustrious (87) | 87 | 1940 | Scrapped 1956 |
| HMS Victorious (R38) | R38 | 1941 | Scrapped 1969 |
Sources
- Facts harvested from Illustrious-class aircraft carrier on Wikipedia. Figures only — no wording is taken from it.