RN Aircraft Carriers: Audacious / Eagle Class 1951

[Pelican]

HMS Eagle entering Portsmouth for the last time on January 26, 1972. She’s flying the flag of Flag Officer Carriers and Amphibious Ships and a 450-foot-long paying-off pennant. A single Buccaneer from 800 NAS sits on the flight deck.
Almost seven years previously the ship had completed a £31m modernisation (~£1bn in 2023) and due to the fact the ship could not operate the new Phantom FG.1 aircraft without further modifications, she had been earmarked for disposal.
Alongside in Portsmouth, Eagle was decommissioned the same day and then destored. She was towed to Devonport later that year in August and then cannibalised for parts to keep Ark Royal going. After years moored in the Tamar, Eagle was towed to Cairnryan, Scotland for scrap in September 1978, a process completed by 1980.
Information from David Hobbs' British Aircraft Carriers.

[Brian James]

HMS Ark Royal pictured on departure from HMNB Devonport c1978.

[Brian James]

HMS Eagle c1970.