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
Audacious-class aircraft carrier
The Audacious-class aircraft carriers were a class of aircraft carriers proposed by the British government in the 1930s - 1940s and completed after the Second World War. The two ships built were heavily modified and diverged over their service lives. They were in operation from 1951 until 1979.
HMS Eagle
HMS Ark Royal (left) next to USS Nimitz in 1978.