Ark Royal

somme1916 · Post by **somme1916** » Tue 11 Sep, 2012 9:57 pm

raveydavey wrote: somme1916 wrote: Seems a massive mistake to de-commision so early......it will have cost hundreds of millions....and scrapped for £3m.All leaving the country without any military capacity to launch planes from a ship which has proved vital in past military arenas.Reminds me of when they decided to scrap these ships as well as hawker jump jet harriers....What's all that about ?Surely a VTOL aircraft is a massive help in such areas and requires no airstrip to operate.It would seem the MOD are sometimes out manouvered in key areas where basic common sense would be the best option.Heaven forbid we'd need that capacity but it would be folly to leave yourself exposed as indeed we currently are. Don't forget that the entire Harrier fleet had just undergone a costly refurbishment programme designed to keep them in the air for the next 15 years. No wonder the Americans snapped them up at a bargain price...A cynic might wonder that getting rid of either part of the aircraft carrier / jump jet equation was specifically designed to justify the removal of the other... Yes,ravey.....some lunatics out there in charge of the country's well being as well as the purse strings.No wonder we're in the state we're in.Bit late to start worrying now though...the deal's done and we have to await our 2 new carriers(one of which was almost cancelled)......perhaps we'll revert to the fairy swordfish planes to fly from them.At least they'll be cheaper ! Bit like watching "Battle of the River Plate" which was on again today for the umpteenth time......I'd love to see some permanent reminder of the historic association with Leeds somewhere/how.....Why couldn't they at least salvage the ship's anchor to be put on display in the city centre ?

somme1916 · Post by **somme1916** » Tue 11 Sep, 2012 9:58 pm

post error

somme1916 · Post by **somme1916** » Tue 11 Sep, 2012 9:58 pm

Think the SL site had a wobbler ! I only posted my response the once but it appeared three times.....weird.

Jogon · Post by **Jogon** » Tue 11 Sep, 2012 10:12 pm

Sorry tangent-------->Mention of LBA landings etc, Mrs J once had such wind problems coming in to Yeadon, they were diverted elsewhere. No surprise there.Has anyone ever endured the hop, skip, jump landings at the improbably bad Madeira Airport? http://youtu.be/Yq9WrCFqmbINo such thing as an Atheist on those planes.

Post by **cnosni** » Tue 11 Sep, 2012 11:33 pm

carith wrote: tilly wrote: raveydavey wrote: The ships bell is on display at the Civic Hall - presumably it's the original as the ship has been out of service for a while now.I still think that the City of Leeds should have bought it and floated it up to Clarence Dock - that would have got visitor numbers up! There might have been a problem with depth on the river Aire.Then there is the matter of getting it into Clarence Dock. getting the Ark Royal into clarence dock?? a bit like the car in the Woodpecker problem. Quality again Carith,absolute quality on every level

Post by **cnosni** » Tue 11 Sep, 2012 11:54 pm

somme1916 wrote: Seems a massive mistake to de-commision so early......it will have cost hundreds of millions....and scrapped for £3m.All leaving the country without any military capacity to launch planes from a ship which has proved vital in past military arenas.Reminds me of when they decided to scrap these ships as well as hawker jump jet harriers....What's all that about ?Surely a VTOL aircraft is a massive help in such areas and requires no airstrip to operate.It would seem the MOD are sometimes out manouvered in key areas where basic common sense would be the best option.Heaven forbid we'd need that capacity but it would be folly to leave yourself exposed as indeed we currently are. Im afraid you are guilty of speaking common sense,and therefore your opinion is of no use to the current government.

somme1916 · Post by **somme1916** » Wed 12 Sep, 2012 9:01 am

cnosni wrote: somme1916 wrote: Seems a massive mistake to de-commision so early......it will have cost hundreds of millions....and scrapped for £3m.All leaving the country without any military capacity to launch planes from a ship which has proved vital in past military arenas.Reminds me of when they decided to scrap these ships as well as hawker jump jet harriers....What's all that about ?Surely a VTOL aircraft is a massive help in such areas and requires no airstrip to operate.It would seem the MOD are sometimes out manouvered in key areas where basic common sense would be the best option.Heaven forbid we'd need that capacity but it would be folly to leave yourself exposed as indeed we currently are. Im afraid you are guilty of speaking common sense,and therefore your opinion is of no use to the current government. Thanks cnosni,I take no satisfaction from my post but clearly the blindingly obvious decisions were rejected by those supposed to run our country......still,I wish we had the anchor in town(not the pub !).

Johnny39 · Post by **Johnny39** » Tue 21 May, 2013 5:14 pm

H.M.S. Ark Royal sailed for Turkey 20/5/2013 to be broken-up.

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Wed 22 May, 2013 9:45 pm

Johnny39 wrote: H.M.S. Ark Royal sailed for Turkey 20/5/2013 to be broken-up. This is what it's come to - we can't even scrap our own ships nowadays...

electricaldave · Post by **electricaldave** » Fri 24 May, 2013 1:32 pm

Perhaps we don't, but we do have a thriving business importing other ships full of toxic materials for scrapping, so that's good news then.