The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
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U.S. Office
of Naval Intelligence. Via AcePilots.com
| Tonnage | 23,000 tons standard displacement |
| Dimensions | 743'9" by 95'9" by 24' 226.70m by 29.18m by 7.32m |
| Maximum speed |
30.5 knots |
| Complement | 1200 |
| Aircraft | 740' (225.5 m) flight
deck 2 elevators 1 catapult 36 aircraft |
| Armament | 8x2 4.5"/45
dual-purpose guns 48 40mm/40 AA guns |
| Protection | 4.5" (114mm) belt,
bulkheads,
and hangar sides 3" (76mm) flight deck 3" (76mm) hangar floor 3" (76mm) steering 1.5" (38mm) torpedo holding bulkhead 13'5" (4.1m) torpedo protection depth designed against 750 lb (340kg) TNT |
| Machinery |
3-shaft Parsons geared turbine
(111,000 shp) 6 Admiralty 3-drum boilers |
| Bunkerage | 4850 tons fuel oil 50,540 gallons (191,310 liters) aviation gasoline |
| Range | 11,000 nautical miles (20,000 m) at 14 knots |
| Sensors |
Type
281 air search radar Type 285 fire control |
| Modifications |
Light antiaircraft
armament continually increased,
reaching 50 20mm AA
guns and 21 40mm
Bofors AA guns on some units by 1945. Deck parking was adopted to increase capacity to 54 aircraft. Radars were continually upgraded, eventually including Type 277 height-finder and Type 960 air search. Complement rose to about 2000 by 1945. |
The Illustrious class was built under
the limitations of the Second London Treaty, which restricted carrier
displacement to 23,000 tons. Faced with inevitable tradeoffs, the
British focused on the likelihood that their carriers would have to
operate under constant risk of land-based air attack. This led to a
novel design philosophy emphasizing armor protection
of her aircraft against bombs and cruiser fire. The hangar deck was a
heavily armored box merging
with substantial side armor belts, the only weaknesses being the
unarmored elevators.
The heavily armored flight deck allowed these ships to shrug off kamikaze strikes that would have crippled an American carrier. However, the tradeoff for this substantial protection was a rather small air group for a class that was intended to be the backbone of the fleet air arm.
| Illustrious |
Arrived 1942-5 Withdrawn 1943 Arrived early 1944 |
| Victorious |
Arrived 1943-2 (Pearl Harbor) Withdrawn 1943-8 Arrived 1945-4 |
| Formidable |
Arrived 1942-3 Withdrawn 1942-10 Arrived autumn 1944 |
References
Gogin (2010; accessed 2012-12-24)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2009, 2012 by Kent G. Budge. Index
