HMS Illustrious (87)
Service
- as Illustrious25 May 1940 — February 19551,926 days of the war
- Name
- HMS Illustrious
- Pennant / hull number
- 87
- Builder
- Vickers-Armstrongs
- Ordered
- 13 April 1937
- Laid down
- 27 April 1937
- Launched
- 5 April 1939
- Commissioned
- 25 May 1940
- Decommissioned
- February 1955
- Fate
- Sold for scrap, November 1956 (1956)
- Status
- Scrapped
Specifications
- Displacement, standard
- 23,000 long tons (23,369 t)
- Length
- 225.55 m (740 ft) OA
- Beam
- 28.96 m (95 ft)
- Draught
- 8.53 m (28 ft)
- Speed
- 30 knots (55.6 km/h, 34.5 mph)
- Range
- 10,700 nmi (19,816 km)
- Complement
- 1,299
- Main gun
- 114 mm (4.5 in)
HMS Illustrious was a Illustrious-class aircraft carrier built for the Royal Navy. She carried the pennant number 87. Vickers-Armstrongs laid her keel on 27 April 1937. She entered service on 25 May 1940, having been launched on 5 April 1939.
She was one of three ships of her class. The class followed the HMS Ark Royal (91) and was succeeded by the Implacable class.
She displaced 23,000 long tons. She measured 225.6 m (740 ft) long with a beam of 29.0 m (95 ft). Her designed speed was 30 knots, and she carried a complement of 1,299.
Her main battery was 16 114 mm (4.5 in) guns in eight twin mountings. She carried 36 aircraft. 111,000 shp drove three shafts.
She was in commission for 1,926 days of the Second World War. She was decommissioned in February 1955.
She was broken up for scrap in November 1956.
Written from the harvested record. Every figure above is sourced; the wording is this site's own.
Armament and machinery
Armament and machinery
- Propulsion
- 3 shafts
- 3 geared steam turbines
- Power
- 111000 shp
- 6 Admiralty 3-drum boilers
- Armament
- 8 × twin 4.5 in dual-purpose guns
- 6 × octuple 2-pdr (40 mm) AA guns
- Armour
- Waterline belt: 4.5 in
- Flight deck: 3 in
- Hangar sides and ends: 4.5 in
- Aircraft
- 36
Sister ships
Sources
- Facts harvested from HMS Illustrious (87) on Wikipedia. Figures only — no wording is taken from it.
- Photograph: Municipal Archives of Trondheim from Trondheim, Norway — HMS Illustrious (ca. 1954) — CC BY 2.0 — Wikimedia Commons