HMS FURIOUS

NAME                  BUILDER          LAID DOWN    LAUNCHED    COMMISSIONED

Furious          Armstrong Whitworth      08/06/15            15/08/16          26/07/17                         

SPECIFICATIONS 

Type fleet aircraft-carrier

 Displacement: 22, 500 tons standard and 28,500 tons full load

Dimensions: length 239.5 m (785. 75 ft); beam 2Z4 m (90 ft); draught 7.3 m(24 ft)

Propulsion: 4-shaft geared steam turbines delivering 90,000 shp (67 113 KW)

Speed: 31.5 kts

Armour: belt 51-~6 mm (2-3-in); hangar deck 38 mm ( 1. 5 in)

Armament: six twin 102-mm (4-in) AA, three octuple 2-pdr AA, and several smaller-calibre guns

Aircraft: 33

Complement:    750 excluding aircrew

NOTES

The several guises of HMS Furious represented the transitional stages between what might be termed 'aircapable' ships and the true aircraft carrier. As the third of Admiral Fisher's 'tin-clad' light battle-cruisers (laid down in 1915), she was launched in August 1916 but delayed in completion to allow her to ship the navy's largest gun, a 45~-mm ( 18-in) weapon, in single mounts at each end. Although virtually complete in March 1917, she then had her forward gun removed in favour of a sloping flying-off deck some 69.5 m (228 ft) in length. A hangar beneath this deck accommodated up to 10 aircraft (some seaplanes and some wheeled). Completed thus in July 1917. she rapidly showed the limitations of carrying aircraft that could not (officially at least) be recovered after a flight. In November 1917, therefore, her after gun mounting made way for a 86.6=m (284-ft) flying-on deck over a second hangar. Much of her superstructure still remained, however, and the high speeds at which she steamed to create the necessary wind-over-deck resulted in severe turbulence, causing an unacceptable accident rate among would-be landers-on. Relegated again to flying-off only, the Furious still had the distinction of mounting the first real carrier-based air strike when, on 19 July 1918, seven of her Sopwith Camels destroyed two Zeppelins and their sheds at Tondern. A through-deck was obviously required, as on the new ,Argus, and she was thus modified between 1921 and 1925. Even following this, she was still of interim design, having no island. Not until her final prewar refit did she acquire a vestigial superstructure, topped-off by a diminutive mast that supported a distinctive homing beacon.

Despite her age and infirmities, the Furious saw service in Atlantic hunting groups and convoy escorts, the Norwegian campaign, aircraft ferrying to both Malta and West Africa, and the North African landings. Her last flying was against the Tirpitz, immured in a Norwegian  Fjord, before she went into reserve during September 1944. She was scrapped in 1948.