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Career United Kingdom
Builder:	Harland and Wolff
Laid down:	24 October 1942
Launched:	19 March 1946
Commissioned:	5 October 1951
Decommissioned:	1972
Status:	Scrapped 1978
Homeport:	HMNB Devonport
General characteristics
Displacement:	43,060 tons standard, 53,950 tons full load
Length:	804 ft (245 m)
Beam:	135 ft (41 m)
Draught:	33 ft (10.1 m)
Propulsion:	4 shaft geared steam turbines, 8 boilers, 152,000 shp
Speed:	32 kt (59 km/h)
Range:	7,000 miles at 18 knots (13,000 km at 33 km/h)
Complement:	2,500 (average); 2,750 (max.)
Armament:	* As built - 16 - 4.5 inch guns (8x2), 61 - 40 mm guns (8x6) (2x2) (9x1), *post 1964 re-fit 8- 4.5 inch guns (4x2), 6 Seacat SAM missile launchers
Armour:	4 inch waterline belt, 4 to 1 inch armoured flight deck, 1 inch hangar side, 1 inch hangar deck,
Aircraft carried:	As built: 60; post 1964: 45
Notes:	Pennant = R05,

HMS Eagle was an aircraft carrier of the British Royal Navy, in service 1951-1972. With its sister ship Ark Royal, it is one of the two largest British aircraft carriers yet built.

Initially laid down in 1942 at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast as one of four ships of the Audacious class that were laid down during World War II as part of the British naval buildup during that conflict. However, two were cancelled at the end of hostilities, and the remaining two were suspended. Originally designated Audacious, she was finally launched as Eagle (the fifteenth Royal Navy ship to receive this name) in March 1946, after the Audacious class carrier Eagle was cancelled.

A number of changes were incorporated into the design, although Eagle was launched too early to see an angled flight deck installed, and the ship was commissioned in October 1951.

Her first wartime service came in 1956, when she took part in the Suez Crisis. The ship's aircraft of that period included Westland Wyverns, Douglas Skyraiders, Armstrong Whitworth Sea Hawks and de Havilland Sea Venoms. An angled flight deck was fitted in 1956-1957 with a mirror landing sight. In 1959 she was taken to Devonport Dockyard for an extensive refit and modernisation along the lines of that given to HMS Victorious. She was re-commissioned in 1964 as a very new and different ship. In addition to major improvements to her accommodation, machinery and weaponry she also acquired a proper angled deck (at 8.5 degrees) with steam catpults, enlarged island and as a result of all these plus more changes; an increased displacement (+50,000 tons). This made her the largest ship in the Royal Navy. By this time, the airwing had changed to Blackburn Buccaneer, Sea Vixen and Fairey Gannet aircraft. The Supermarine Scimitar also saw service on the ship during this period before being replaced by the Buccaneer.

She was refitted at Devonport once more to give her the more powerful catapults and wires to operate the McDonnell Douglas Phantom. She re-commissioned in 1967. Eagle had more advanced electronics and 984-series radar then her sister ship Ark Royal.

However, by the mid-1960s, the British Government had decided that the days of the large Royal Navy aircraft carrier were limited. The fleet was swiftly run down, with Eagle being the penultimate to decommission. Initially it had been intended that Ark Royal be decommissioned before Eagle, but when Eagle shed a propellor blade the decision was taken to remove her from service instead of Ark Royal, rather than construct a new propellor. She was paid off in 1972, and towed to Devonport where she was placed on reserve. Up until 1976 she was officially still on reserve but had been used as a source of parts for Ark Royal until the latter decommissioned as well in 1978. Eagle was then swiftly scrapped.

• Raymond Blackman, Ships of the Royal Navy (Macdonald and Jane's, London, 1973)

• Maritimequest HMS Eagle photo gallery