As an ancient French sailor, flight deck crew member aboard Porte-avions Foch and Clémenceau in the early 90's, i must say that's an amazing footage, very impressive, magnificent Wessex and F4, Buccanneers were so massive!! well done! the Ark royal was a very nice ship not very different than ours, old fashion way..Back in time i usually worked around the Flottille 12F equipped with F8 Crusader, the last gunfighter, amazing aircraft, night ops were pretty scary,..Cheers fron France
@Slater Slater I think the French navy was the last operational user ( early 2000's) after Philipines dicomintionned their own F-8, ours F-8E ( FN) recieved special modifications like the angle attack of the deployed wing, leading edges slats in two element, new avionics...glad to have seen these amazing fighters in action on board...
@Slater Slater yes the exocet missile/ Super Etendard was a deadly combo, RIP for the crews of the Sheffield destroyer...When i was aboard the Foch and Clémenceau most of the entire air group could fit on the hangar ( aproximatly 30 aircrafts), 2 Alouette III ( aka " PEDRO" escadrille 23S.), 1 or 2 Dauphin chopper ( also " Pedro") same job than your Wessex, Super Etendard ( 10 aircrafts flottille 14F, 17F) ( like Buccanneer), few Etendard IV P for recon mission ( P for Photo flottile 16F ), 4 or 5 Bréguet Alizé ( same as Gannet flottille 6F.) AEW mission, and like the Phantoms, F-8E FN for the air superiority missions ( less than 10, Flottille 12F call sign "lascar"), a couple of Super-frelon ( like seaking flottille 33F) and often, 2 super Etendard with air refuelling belly pods. Flottille had the same type of aircraft, escadrille were composed with different aircrafts ( Alouette II/ III, Dauphin).most of the time only few planes were spotted on the flight deck when the 3 hangars were fully load...
@Slater Slater i have some very good mémories about the F-8 at sea, during night ops, full afterburner after cat launch, and that aircraft was magnificent on the glide slope with fully rised wing, full down flaperons, dark smoke at every power management, And what about that amazing front wheelie after every touch down...
HMS Ark Royal RO9, was my first ship in my 25 year Naval career. I was on board 1972 to 1973, just one year, but what a year! Trips to Rosyth, Oslo, Gibraltar, Barcelona, Malta and then a 3 month deployment to the Caribbean and the USA where I managed to get a week's leave in Florida. This footage is from two years after I left but nothing has changed, with the mighty Phantoms and Buccaneers in high profile. I worked in the Pay Office with a dozen others but would often spend my leisure time up on the 'Goofing Deck' on the Island amidships watching the take-offs and landings and taking slide pictures. It was known as the 'Jewel in the Crown' of the Royal Navy at the time, and I was sad to see it scrapped. The name ARK ROYAL has been lost, it seems but maybe one day it will emerge again, I do hope so!
This is the sort of gem of a film that makes it worthwhile coming to RU-vid. I loved every moment of it, thank you - and who doesn't just love the sight and sound of a busy Aircraft Carrier (especially with Buccaneers!) ? Just brilliant.
I'm an american and sailed along side of her back in 1975 while I was stationed aboard the USS Independence, CV-62. I was on the flight deck and your phantoms landed on our flight deck.
@@timj41 Maybe you should realise that the old commie agitator Merkle is really Putin's friend, she is slowly making Europe dependent on Russia for energy supply and now setting people up for Sputnik instead of AZ, watch what some former East Germans and eastern Europeans are up to, some of them still long for the old system and are longing to spread throughout the EU
I visited HMS Ark Royal in the 2nd half of the 70's ...I was more or less 16/17, impressive shipi, visitors were welcome and guided by Royal Marines.. unforgettable... I am now 63...
I'm always struck by just how short our catapults were. BTW, the full video is a great teaching-aid for anyone wanting to show their little uns something about teamwork.
Was on board during this as a stoker. Happy days! I remember watching these launches and recoveries, what bottle! Also the pilot of SAR 47 who on RAS’s used to throw the Wessex around the sky like a toy. Fantastic
Its good to be reminded that the Royal Navy has decades of experience deploying aircraft carriers and their flight wing. I was never in favour of losing our carrier fleet for those years before the Queen Elizabeth class were built and commissioned.
@@MikeLacey52 Buccaneers aren’t USA and all carrier technology is British apart from daft Nuclear Power that will be disastrous when they see real naval warfare
RAF old man here: worked with many of these Buccaneers when they moved over to us. Strike, Maritime Strike and Nuclear Strike, through the times at Red Flag, and into the latter years when so many were grounded 'cos pols wouldn't spring for the remanufacture of some of the spars. Never ran out of spare parts due to this though, and our two-seat Hunter trainer for Buccaneer crews lasted another twenty years after the Buccs were retired, even though we had to replace a wing due to a 'firm' landing. The film 'Exercise Open Gate' (IIRC) covers the year before I came to Honington. Awesome Vangelis music, too. ;-)
These were the golden ages. A Royal Navy Britain could justifiably be proud of. Just imagine if the Falklands War had been fought with assets like these. Maybe it would had never taken place, right?
@@jacktanner4948 Because it fits much better. Ark Royal is THE name for british aircraft carriers. QE is a battleship name, now appropriate for a submarine, not for a carrier.
American flattops are named after presidents so the Brits followed the same piece of advice by naming their new carriers after the Queen and her heir. It would've been fantastic to name the new carriers HMS Ark Royal and HMS Victorious since both names represent a magnificent naval heritage in the Royal Navy. It's all politics nowadays.
I was on board the Ark when they made this video. A very exciting place to be working as a young lad - particularly during recovery stations in rough seas and at night.
What saddens me, is that its likely that many of the people seen in this video are now either dead or doddery! 47 years is a long time and if they were in their 30's back then, they will be in their late 70's-early 80's now! That said, I hope they all had great service lives and enjoyed their lives after they left the service. Thanks for keeping us peasants safe!...xxx
The bitch would have scrapped it. Just like she was set to get rid of one-third of the UK Navy's surface fleet following the 1981 "Defence" Review. She was also intending to sell HMS Invincible and her aircraft to the Australians.
John Cameron FFS John.Our American friend wasn't having a dig.He was merely stating a fact.The fleet air Arm boys done a great job landing those jets on our smaller carriers.
One of the greatest inventions by the Royal Naval Air Arm was the Ramp. Simple and elegant and copied by the Russians and Chinese... I wonder why the Americans have not subscribed to it
@Teh Goat, the ramp affords less than half the payload and weight of the Aircraft than the Catapult. The Ramp has no advantages over the catapult: none.
This a top quality document, with lots of details about the preparation work to be done prior a plane departs. Never seen that before, well done and thanks for sharing
God bless the Royal Navy. Undefeated since its inception, and all us Brits should be thankful for evermore for that. My father served for 15 years and was a Cold War submariner. It set the standards for all Anglosphere and Commonwealth navies and its traditions and excellence are still alive today, thankfully. Hearts of Oak indeed.
It just shows you can't have a navy on the cheap..... HMS Ark Royal was the best carrier of her time, cats and traps, with phamtom's and buccanners. We should have had cats and traps on HMS QE's carrier but it will cost us in the end!!!
Man read my comment! I don't know why they built them with no cats? So the only platform that can fly off QE and PoW is the f35. I guess the future is vstol. I don't know? Maybe.
Our new carriers have NO airborne early warning or airborne anti submarine capability. Unlike the US, who have the E2 hawkeye (the last thing the fleet air arm had with those sorts of capabilities was the Fairey Gannet)
This was made the year I was born, the Royal Navy really used to be something. Maybe with the introduction of the new Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers it will restore some pride to the RN.
The whole West has gone backwards, courtesy of the leftard quislings. Someone like Callahan would have licked Galtieri's boots after handing him over the Falklands.
@@Charlesputnam-bn9zy How do you know that? The Labour Party supported Thatcher during the Falklands. I'm no fan, believe me, but Callahan and Healy were decent people.
@@mookie2637 decent as individuals, no doubt. But moved by their leftist convictions which had always been those of the appeasers who view patriotism as warmongering. Like (the British Noam Chomsky)Alan John Percival Taylor's ''There was nothing wrong with Hitler except he was a German.'' in his 1968''The Origins Of The Second World War''.
So this kid puts on a captain's hat and says "Yarrrr! I'm a PIRATE!" I asked him "Where's your Buccaneers?" And he says "On the sides of me Buccan 'ead!"
Me too, coming over on the ferry from Larne for Easter and summer holidays. As they chopped her up she rose out of the water to offer more of herself. What a visitor attraction she would be now but perhaps her destruction was a more fitting end.
One of the pilots (at 5:30) is David Hansom, known as Twiggy. David and I joined Cathay Pacific on the same day, and we did our command courses (on the B747) at the same time, We were both checked (one of many over many months!) by a fellow by the name of Pete de Sousa, ex Fleet Air Arm Scimitars (who was checked out by my Hamble instructor, Roy Noyes). I recall going up to the 4th floor of the CX building around Christmas 1987 with David to sight our check reports (which we had to read and sign off). De Sousa did us proud, we both got reports that glowed in the dark. Sadly, both have now passed away.
Did you happen to have know a Phantom driver named Jim Bellamy either in the navy or with Cathay Pacific? He was a cabin mate at Dartmouth, but we lost touch. I understand he too passed away.
My grandfather worked on that ship, he was an engineer who would fixedThe jets if there was a problem. He was on another ship which I don’t know the name off but there where sea fury’s and sword fish on it with the jets
Mine was involved in building her! He fitted the fire fighting systems. Thinking about it, it was probably the previous Ark Royal, not this one, the one that eventually got torpedoed and sank in the Med.
This isn't a training film, it's a recruiting film! I can't resist watching every time it's here available: great tempo, great announcing, the unbeleivable squeeze of giant a/c on a Very Short deck, a classy Gannet, i could go on... It would B nice 2 C the new twins snap it up like this old FAA used 2
A golden era no doubt - in fact I'd argue there was still a role of Buccaneers - not exactly 5th Gen but with its boundary layer control and ground effect could get in very fast and low and have capacity to deliver some serious ordnance.
R09 my old ship, before the angled flight deck added, for three yrs - but my work was deep inside rather than on deck. My mess deck was right below one of the catapults.
I was only 9 at the time but I remember the Audacious-class Ark Royal being decommissioned It'd be nice to see an Ark Royal in the Navy's SuperCarrier fleet. I know they only plan on having 2 but a lot can change over the next decade or so. A Nuclear powered Carrier with emals and lasers may be out of the question due to costs but 10 or 20 years down the road when have all our F35's maybe then, It'd be good for the Navy to have the option to field multi-role aircraft like the Typhoon & maybe even a few Gripens if they're smart enough to buy some..
Flight deck procedures look pacy enough by day and in fair weather. What must it have been like at night or in poor weather? I remember being told that a carrier such as Ark Royal could reckon on losing a man per commission through incidents such as walking into a Gannet's prop disk.
Could be my favorite video; the building tension, beautiful aircraft (even Gannets, in their own quirky way), intake/exhaust/contraprop anxiety on a very compact deck (FEAR- the bulgy shape of a Buc must be to fair-in the pilot's cojones, but what about deck crew?). Wish we, Ever, could produce film ala Britannia. But how could 950' of deck look so small? 💜
No thanks, she and the rest of the 'nobility' of Europe have fucked over the common people for over a thousand years, she's a traitor and broke her sworn oath days after taking the throne.
The Buccaneer had a tail bumper / skid as well. Also the Phantom in British Royal Navy service was built with an extending nose-wheel leg for the same reason. It's in this film.
After searching , I found at Falkland war British scrapped the aircraft carrier for F4 Phantom so that sent one for Harrier instead? Or she thought self defense first to keep F4 not to send?
I don't think we had a carrier for Phantoms at that time. Two carriers were involved in the Falklands war: HMS Invincible and the flag, HMS Hermes. Both carried Sea Harriers. HMS Ark Royal in this video (pennant no. R09), with a flat deck and two catapults, was an earlier generation and had been decommissioned in 1979, three years before the Falklands war. In 1982, a different HMS Ark Royal (R07) with the same ski-jump as HMS Invincible had not long been launched after building but didn't enter service until 1985.
Gannets, Buccaneers and Phantoms (with the able assistance of Sea Kings and Wessexes) - this was the Royal Navy's air force. It boggles the mind to think what's become of that.
Even as a humble REM(A) on Buccs I could see that if the Ark had been in the Falklands we would have had no excorcettes being launched from the horizon as the trusty old gannet would have given us hundreds of miles of eyes and a phantom or two despatched before they got anywhere near us or anyone else in the fleet. The buccs could have done there low level thing and pasted the shite out of them, the sea kings could have done there anti sub thing, the wessex 7s doine there rescue thing. The harrier could do none of those roles.a big retrograde step going through deck cruiser. The Ark was incredible,took months to find your way around.can you beleave there was a chinese community who used to run the laundry as well as tailoring. 71 now and all a long time ago but what an experiance.
That was the old way of doing it. The modern nose wheel tow bar first appeared on the E-2 Hawkeye in 1962, with subsequent aircraft designs such as the F-14 Tomcat and F/A-18 Hornet being built with the new system, but the older bridle launch method was still being used on the French Super Étendard right up to its retirement in 2016.
End of the Cold War meant a huge drop in funding. Same time we were seeing a huge jump in costs due to poor procurement and increasing costs of developing aircraft, ships and weapons.
There's an old joke in the Royal Navy: 'always test the wind before you throw gash over the rail'. In the RAF, after a FOD plod, we had to hand everything we found in, so it could be traced back to source. If a tool, a bit of wound-up locking wire or a nut was found, we all wanted to know how it wasn't securely attached to the aircraft as it was supposed to be.
11-17: The father of a great friend of mine, told the stories of his time in the Fleet Air Arm and having seen more than one poor sod literally 'lose their head' when stepping in front of an aircraft having forgotten its air-screw (propeller) was in their way...
far out 7.50 .. love that nose gear and angle of attack .... gold . is it just me or is the usaf f4 nose strut shorter .. why did the brits do it so different ?
In truth, British carriers, mostly designed in the piston-engined era, were too small for operating modern jet aircraft and this was one of the expedients used to enhance them.
The Ark and Eagle were about as small a carrier you could have to operate Bucks and Phantoms. The phantom needed a longer nose wheel than US Versions to increase lift and the Bucanneers were raised to increase lift.
Also RN Phantoms were hindered by Rolls Royce Spey engines increasing their length by iirc 100mm which necessitated the longer nose wheel or added to the reasons for it. Also, I believe the RN Phantoms were prone to damage on their tail sections due to this modification. The UK government insisted Phantoms were fitted with RR Spey engines for all the obvious reasons none of which were technology based.
Remember doing a periphot under here when I served on British nukes great fun they never knew we were there till we sent a under water flare on to her deck lol