CVA-01 was a proposed United Kingdom aircraft carrier, designed during the 1960s. The ship was intended to be the first of a class that would replace all of the Royal Navy's carriers, most of which had been designed before or during the Second World War. CVA-01 and CVA-02 were intended to replace HMS Victorious and HMS Ark Royal, while CVA-03 and CVA-04 would have replaced HMS Hermes and HMS Eagle respectively.
Official drawing of the CVA-01
Ark Royal (left) alongside the US Navy carrier Nimitz in 1978
The Invincible-class carrier Illustrious operating alongside USS John C. Stennis in 1998
HMS Queen Elizabeth operating in the North Sea in 2017
HMS Ark Royal (R09) was an Audacious-class aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy and, when she was decommissioned in 1979, was the Royal Navy's last remaining conventional catapult and arrested-landing aircraft carrier. She was the first aircraft carrier to be equipped with an angled flight deck at its commissioning; her sister ship, HMS Eagle, was the Royal Navy's first angle-decked aircraft carrier after modification in 1954. Ark Royal was the only non-United States vessel to operate the McDonnell Douglas Phantom at sea.
HMS Ark Royal with Phantom FG1 and Buccaneer S2 aircraft on deck, 1976
Ark in the late 1950s, before the port deck-edge lift was removed
Ark Royal in 1957
Ark Royal (background) operating with USS Independence (foreground) in the North Atlantic, 1971