by DESMOND WETTERN

Above, `Hermes' leaves her birthplace at Barrow, and, below, goes through the rigours of heeling trials

IT all began on 12th July 1943. Mr Ber-nard Pool, Deputy Director of Naval

Contracts, wrote to Vickers-Armstrongsat Barrow:

I have to request that you will proceedwith the construction and completion inall respects of one in number Light FleetCarrier for His Majesty's Navy.

That was the `birth certificate' of a shipdestined to become the most advancedand up-to-date aircraft carrier in theworld - H M S Hermes.

But before Hermes finally hoisted theWhite Ensign on the morning of 18thNovember 1959 there had first to be un-folded a story of delays and disappoint-ments and of skill and achievement.

In July 1943 there were the first dimgleams of victory. But at sea the battle wasfar from won. In the North Atlantic theU-boats were still sinking thousands oftons of Allied shipping every month. Theimpact of the new Support Groupspioneered by men like Captain 'Freddie'Walker was only beginning to be felt bythe U-boats and their crews. And in ship-yards like Barrow, with their long tradi-tion in the building of warships, anti-submarine vessels were being built in vastnumbers to make good war losses and thedeficiencies resulting from the parsimoni-ous policies of pre-war politicians. Butnow, with funds readily available, theAdmiralty was able to look well ahead.The U-boats would be beaten in time andonce again it would be possible to unfoldthe map of Europe. There remained Japan,now sprawled across the Pacific and SouthEast Asia. Already the United StatesNavy had shown the need for seaborneairpower and amphibious forces in thePacific.

So, as four `U' and `W' class destroyersneared completion at Barrow, new typesof ships were appearing on the drawingboards. There were landing craft first andthen aircraft carriers.

By the time Mr Pool signed the `birthcertificate' for the new light fleet carrier,two other carriers were already building:the Perseus and Majestic. But with theatom bomb still a long way from being a

practical reality, the Admiralty was pre-paring for the long drawn out strugglewith the Japanese. A new fleet of carrierswas planned ranging from the 14,000 tonships of the `Colossus' class to the giantslike the Gibraltar and Malta.

On Ist October 1944 the drawings forthe Elephant, the new light fleet carrier tobe built at Barrow, had been received inthe Yard drawing office. And by the endof the month the drawing office had startedwork. On 23rd November the first offsetswere laid in the mould loft. The Elephanthad left the drawing board.

Eight ships of the class were ordered;the others being Centaur, Albion, Bulwark,Monmouth, Polyphemus, Arrogant andHermes. The first three were soon underconstruction and by 1944 they had beenlaid down. The Elephant was laid downon 21st June of that year. In the previouseight months hundreds of drawings hadbeen prepared by the drawing office, ordershad been placed with sub-contractors andschedules had been worked out for everydepartment in the yard concerned withbuilding the new ship.

The specification prepared by theAdmiralty read like the stock list of somegigantic store with departments rangingfrom engineering to soft furnishings. TheYard had to provide for arresting gear andarmchairs, bacon-slicing machines andbalance weights for hatches, cleats, clipsand cloakrooms. Many such items weremade by sub-contractors but it was ulti-

The new aircraft carrier islaunched by Mrs Churchill

mately the Yard's responsibility to seethey worked and were fitted correctly.

The plan of the ships of the `1943 ClassLight Fleet Carriers' - as the eight shipswere known at this time - bore littleresemblance to any of the four eventuallycompleted.

By 1945 work on the Elephant wasgoing ahead fast. The demands of theBritish Pacific and East Indies Fleets werethrowing a severe strain on the Fleet AirArm and every available fleet carrier incommission was already in the Far East.Carriers and still more carriers wereurgently needed if the British PacificFleet was to continue to play a majorrole alongside the task forces of the U SNavy. The need to cover the landings onthe Japanese mainland, and subsequentoperations ashore, would throw an evengreater strain on the carriers of bothnavies.

Then the mushroom clouds rose over

April 1959. At Barrow work continues in preparation for the voyage toSouthampton .for drydocking.

Fitting out not fully completed,` Hermes' nears Southampton

Hiroshima and Nagasaki and in a fewdays the war was over. And with theending of the war many of the long-established notions for the conduct of warhad vanished. Air power, as the means ofdelivering the atom bomb, was for themoment supreme. It might well be thoughtthat this greatly increased the value ofships like the Elephant which could carryaircraft over two-thirds of the world closeto their targets. But the demands of peaceintervened. All work on the Elephant wasstopped; though this was a better fatethan that of four of her sister ships, thePolyphemus, Monmouth, Arrogant andHermes, which were cancelled. With theoriginal Hermes now cancelled, theAdmiralty decided to perpetuate a namethat had close connections with the birthof the Fleet Air Arm. Accordingly theElephant was renamed Hermes andbecame the tenth ship since 1796 to bearthe name in the Royal Navy.

The outlook for the new Hermes wasnot good in 1945. The only warshipsbeing completed were those whose con-struction was well advanced and whichhad in most cases been launched. Evensome ships which had been launchedwere being cancelled. On the date whenwork stopped on Hermes the shell wasup to middle deck level, and the maininternal bulkheads, had been completed.For the next three years little more thanmaintenance work was done on her. Topreserve her, the steelwork was contin-uously coated with oil. Some work didhowever continue in the drawing office.

With the tremendous demands formerchant ship tonnage to replace warlosses, every available building berth wasneeded. So in 1949 it was decided to goahead and complete the ship up to thelaunching stage, in order to clear the slip.On 16th February 1953 she was launchedby Lady (then Mrs) Winston Churchill.By the middle of 1953 all work on Hermes

had virtually stopped again. In the Pressand elsewhere questions were raised:would she ever be completed? Then cameanother significant letter from the Ad-miralty. ' . . . Since these ships weredesigned, numerous additions have beenmade as the result of new staff require-ments, the lessons of the war and thepartial return to peacetime amenities.'

And by now the angled deck, the steamcatapult and the mirror deck landing aidwere appearing. At last there seemed to bea future for Hermes. When at length newplans arrived from the Admiralty it wasobvious that it was not just a case ofmaking modifications to the existingplans but of virtually building a new shipwithin the confines of the original hull aslaid down.

The big difference was in the armament.With guided missiles and `stand-off'bombs now coming into service, the needfor a multitude of medium and closerange weapons had gone. The 4.5 in. gunsand all but ten of the 40mm. bofors,together with all the 20mm. oerlikons,were removed. But it was not as easy asthat as the magazine stowage and ammu-nition supply hoists had all to be removedor modified. The steam catapults up atthe forward end of the flight deck causedsome headaches. To allow for the tre-mendous increase in thrust and the farheavier aircraft which would be handledthe ship's structure had to be drasticallystrengthened. New and heavier longitu-dinal bulkheads supporting the catapulttroughs and machinery were fitted, andadditional stiffening was necessary notonly for the gallery deck, which supportedthe machinery, but on several decks below.

The deck edge lift on the port sideposed further problems. This type of liftis common to American carriers but itsfirst application in a British carrier,H M S Ark Royal, was not too successful.The reason was that part of the lift in the` down' position encroached on the internal

space within the hull. In Hermes it wasdecided that the whole lift should be out-board of the ship's side. This, however,

required greater strengthening of thesurrounding areas of shell, hangar deckplating and hangar bulkheads to supportthe overhanging load, and consequentlyit was found necessary to build the liftsupports and other adjacent structure ofspecial steel. The `island' superstructurewas completely redesigned and, in place

12

of the foremast, provision had to be madefor the new 984 comprehensive displaysystem radar antenna-weighing 28 tons.

New air weapons such as the Firestreakair-to-air missile meant a major increasein the space required for air weapons.New and heavier aircraft meant strength-ening the flight and hangar decks andincreasing the size of the after lift well.

Perhaps one of the biggest changeswhich had to be allowed for was theincrease in complement. As laid down,Hermes was intended to carry a crew ofabout 1,500. Now new aircraft, andelectronic equipment especially, resultedin an increase of over 1,200 in the crew.Not only had more messing space to beprovided but additional galley, storageand recreational areas were required.

To meet the demands of nuclear war-fare a remote control system for the engineand boiler rooms was worked out, so that,if required, the ship could continue tosteam without a single man in eitherengine or boiler rooms. All pumps andfans in these compartments had to becapable of remote control from the con-trol room. A separate system of air supplyfor the boilers had to be arranged so thatair intakes for the furnaces would notcontaminate the air in the boiler rooms.' Pre-washing' equipment had to be pro-vided on all exposed decks.

As jet aircraft use a different fuel fromother types, two separate fuel systems forAvcats (for jets) and Avgas (for piston-engined aircraft) as well as an Avlub lubri-cation system meant a big increase in fuel

Aided by attendant tugs,

stowage space, pumps and fuel lines. Asystem whereby fuel pumped to the boilerrooms but not consumed could be pumpedback to the tanks was introduced. Thisentailed putting in a 'spill-back' arrange-ment.

One of the most complicated changeswhich had to be made was the changeoverfrom a D C to an A C electricity supply.The original electrical equipment wasdesigned on a ringmain system requiringthe use of low voltage relay open breakerscontrolled from one main and four unitswitchboard rooms. This comprised a 220volt D C system of distribution involvingthe use of turbo and diesel D C generators.All the drawings in connection with theD C system were completed before theship was rebuilt to the new design. Theswitchboards had been delivered andwere nearly ready for installing. Somegenerators and much wiring had alreadybeen fitted aboard. It was then decidedthat the ship should become A C, with adistribution system of 440 volt, 60 cycle,3 phase. This meant that all the motorauxiliaries would be supplied at this vol-tage and that lighting would have a supplyof 115 volts, transformers being used forthis purpose. The changeover from D C toA C in a ship of this size made it necessaryto have close collaboration and exchangeof ideas between the Department of theDirector of Electrical Engineering atAdmiralty and the electrical drawing officeat Barrow.

A reason for the changeover from DCto A C was to conform with current

American practice; another was the needto keep to a minimum the number ofDC/AC machines (motor alternators)which would be required in connectionwith the 984 C D S radar, together with thenecessary subsidiary units requiring alter-nating current. It was also decided thatthe use of AC fluorescent lighting shouldbe a predominant feature and for this quitea large amount of A C was required. Theelectrical system is controlled from fourswitchboards, two forward and two aft.One forward and one after switchboardare each connected to two turbo-genera-tors of 1,000 k/W each. The other twoswitchboards are each connected to two360 k/W diesel generators. Each majorand some minor pieces of electricalapparatus on board have two sources ofsupply. Originally the ship as first de-signed was capable of producing 3,200k/W; today her output is 5,440 k/W. Theelectrical installations cost £1+ million.

Some of the other alterations in theplans resulting from the change in thedesign included the fitting of a sponsonon the port side for the mirror landing aid;the provision of air conditioning in officesand living spaces; the fitting of liquidoxygen-making apparatus; the removal ofseparate accommodation for warrantofficers and a corresponding increase inwardroom accommodation; new all-electric equipment in the galleys; removalof hammock hooks and provision ofimproved kit stowage and bunks; im-proved laundry and bathroom facilities;new and more cheerful deck coverings on

,' Hermes' arrives at Southampton for her final docking before acceptance trials

Entering Southampton's King GeorgeV graving dock in May 1959

the messdecks and even the removal andredesign of such anachronisms as the airgunners' ready room. Gone, too, weresuch things as wooden topped messtables.Vending machines for hot or cold drinks,a much improved canteen, and recreationrooms were among some of the many newitems fitted.

Yet in spite of these varied and largescale alterations in the design, the Yardwas able to give the Admiralty a firmdelivery date for the ship as far back asJanuary 1958.

In May 1959 Hermes, still only partiallycomplete, sailed for Southampton fordrydocking before proceeding on con-tractors' sea trials. After a spell atSouthampton and at sea in the Clyde shereturned to Barrow and on 1st Novembershe left her builders for the last time.Once more she returned to Southamptonand on 17th November she sailed downSouthampton Water wearing the RedEnsign. The following day Captain D. S.Tibbits R N signed for her on behalf of theAdmiralty. The Red Ensign was loweredand the White Ensign was hoisted in itsplace. Hermes was now H M S.

This 16 ft to the inch scale model of HMS `Hermes', made for the Admiralty by JulianGlossop, is to be displayed at exhibitions and recruiting centres throughout the United

Kingdom by the Director of Naval Recruiting

T HE object of the organisation of anaircraft carrier is about the only

simple thing about it. It is to enable thevessel to operate, and to continue tooperate, her aircraft to the best effect.

This aim seemed a little remote when Itook my seat at a desk in an office on thetop floor of Vickers-Armstrongs' atBarrow-in-Furness last January. I hadjust been appointed Senior Officer andExecutive Officer (designate) of H M SHermes. It had become a good deal lessremote, though still a long way fromfulfilment, as I wrote this in the middleof the Bay of Biscay surrounded by galewarnings of force 10 to 15 (hurricaneforce) winds. We were on the last stageof our shakedown cruise after commis-sioning some ten days earlier. We hadcome a long way in the previous ten

Above: Designed for greater efficiency-'R' switchboard roomBelow: One of the 27 ft motor whalers

months but the testing time will be whenour squadrons of aircraft fly aboard at theend of our period of trials.

My problem was to arrange, with myNaval colleagues, for the accommodation,feeding, health, welfare, recreation, mor-ale, training and amenities of some 200officers and 2,000 men of all ranks, ratingsand specialisations in such a way thatthey could each in their own way maketheir contribution to the effective runningof the ship's services. These include suchvaried things as aircraft control, radar,lighting, propulsion, cooking, navigation,gun control, steam catapults and radiocommunications systems. The arrange-ments must be so devised that everyoneknows what is expected of him and when,and in such a way that conflicts do notoccur; for instance the flight deck shouldnot be painted on the same day as flour isembarked by way of the aircraft lift. It isalso important that the ship should be run

with the minimum recourse to the internalbroadcast system, because the bedlamotherwise would rapidly bring chaosthrough sheer mental strain.

The approach to the solution is as oldas the Navy, although my ideas may welldiffer in detail from those of the executiveofficer of another ship. Basically theofficers and ship's company had to bedivided into departments as a first step.This was simple as it follows naturallyfrom the training which each has received.The departments in this case are five,although there are, in fact, a good fewsmaller ones and many sub-departments.These five are the air, the seaman, theengineering, the electrical and the supplydepartments. These departments had thento be split into divisions which, in the caseof the air department are the flight deck,the hangar, the photographic, safetyequipment, air electrical, air engineeringand air ordnance divisions. In many cases,

to ensure that the numbers should be ofmanageable size, these divisions had to befurther split into sub-divisions. Respon-sible for each department is a Comman-

der, known as the Head of Department,who is assisted by a deputy of Lieutenant-Commander's rank who, of course, doesthe work! The divisional officers may beof Lieutenant-Commander's, Lieutenant'sor Sub-Lieutenant's rank and in mostcases there is more than one officer aswell as several Chief Petty Officers or PettyOfficers attached to each division. This isthe basic means of controlling and arrang-ing the work of the ship's company, aswell as their play.

Starting from this basis it then becamenecessary for me to produce a guide bookcalled `Hermes Standing Orders' contain-ing the rules and procedures for matterscommon to all departments. This guidealso contains the basic `routine' for theship as a whole for weekdays, Saturdaysand Sundays, in harbour and at sea.Using this framework the heads of depart-ments then set about writing their owndepartmental orders which give detailed

instructions for the running of their owndepartment.

Three things became very evident to meat an early stage of my time in Lancashire.First, the heads of departments must be onspeaking terms. Second, in an affair ascomplicated as the running of a carrierthere must always be mutual consultationbetween departments, not to say agree-ment, before any matter, other than inemergency, is put into effect; it is just notpossible for any one man to take intoaccount the full repercussions of someparticular measure. Third, some means ofkeeping the 2,000 or so individuals in-formed and pulling in the same directionmust be found.

We have, I think, made progress in allthese things. The heads of departmentsare on far better than speaking terms;they are friends. We have set up a `Ship'sActivities Co-ordination Team' happilyknown by the short title of `Accord',which consists of the deputies who, youwill remember, do the work, and the headsof all the sub-departments. This teammeets regularly. In the early stages of our

taking over the ship they met daily. Nowthey meet about twice a week and willalways meet at least once a week. Theirterms of reference are to produce theship's programme from the outline decidedupon by our operational authority, towork out the detailed dovetailing to avoidclashes such as I referred to earlier, and toiron out difficulties which may arise fromday to day, referring as may be necessary(not often) to the heads of department.

On the matter of information, the ship'sprogramme is promulgated for six monthsahead, although this, of course, is subject

by Commander G. C. MITCHELLROYAL NAVY

to alteration. It is announced a monthahead in more detail, giving the timingof the more important events, is posted aweek ahead in greater detail still and finallyis shown on all the notice boards a dayahead in the form of `Daily Orders' whichgive all the detail necessary for the entireshow to run. In addition to this the Cap-tain gives periodical broadcasts which

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1Principal task of the versatile ship's crane is loading supplies which may vary from sacksof flour to heavy spares - and stowed beside it - a 35 ft medium speed power launch

`The most important quality of all'From the foreword to a pamphlet issued to each man who joins the ship.` To all the material features which make this fine ship must be added themost important quality of all, the will and spirit of every individualofficer and man of her company. This alone can bring the ship to life and

make her respected, efficient and happy ....'

may be amplified or augmented by myselfas often as desirable. We also have aregular programme each night at 18.45on the ship's internal broadcasting system,lasting a matter of ten minutes, whichruns over the events of the day and theaims for the morrow, and which tries tokeep those in the engine room informed ofwhat has happened on the flight deck andthose who keep watch on the signal deckin touch with what has happened eight ornine decks below them during the lasttwenty-four hours.

To help us with our morale we have avaried selection of amenities within theship. We have a fully equipped laundry,television, cinema, a barber's shop, can-teen, bookstall, libraries, soda fountainand soft drink vending machines. We runtheatricals, expeditions, tombola, deckhockey on the flight deck, gramophonerecord programmes and, of course, a fullprogramme of sports of all kinds. We havea busy dental surgery, a very fine sick bay,and we have - perhaps as important asany other thing in the ship - a chapelcomplete with chaplain.

A pump unit of the high power twin steamcatapults installed in `Hermes'

AT Farnborough last year three types of

naval aircraft were splendidly demon-strated. They were the NA.39 strike air-

craft, the Sea Vixen all-weather fighter,and the Vickers Supermarine Scimitar dayfighter and ground attack aircraft; andthey set new standards of performance,speed, rate of climb and weapon carryingability, ushering in a new era in Britishnaval aviation. Watching them perform atFarnborough, it was easy to forget thereis the other side to the picture, withoutwhich a naval aircraft is useless - the air-craft carrier. Time was when the aircraftin an aircraft carrier were so slow, smalland light that there were few problems inlaying out the carrier's flight deck andhangar to operate them. With the adventof the jet aeroplane all this began tochange. But for three British inventions,

Three British inventions, all of which are installed inH M S Hermes - the steam catapult, the angled deck and thedeck landing mirror sight - have made it possible for aircraftcarriers to operate our new generation of naval aircraft.Commander H. C. N. GOODHART RN here explains the problem of

Fitting theaircraft carrierto the modernaircraft

the introduction of this latest generationof aircraft could never have taken place.

Originally, aircraft carriers did not needto be fitted with catapults, since the lengthof the deck was sufficient (after makingallowance for the wind due to ship's speed)for unaided take-off. However as the take-off speed and weight increased, it becameprogressively more necessary to fit cata-

pults. In laying out the deck of an aircraftcarrier, the length of the catapult is themost important feature. This lengthincreases as the square of the launchingspeed required, assuming (correctly) thatthe `g' applied to the aircraft and pilot isnot increased. Any increase in `g' overthat currently in use would cause anappreciable increase in aircraft structure

`Scimitars' ranged on the catapult. These photographs were taken in another Vickers-built aircraft carrier, HMS `Victorious', beforethe air group of 'Hermes' was embarked.

In seconds this `Scimitar' will be airborne

weight as well as being nearer the absolutelimit the pilot could tolerate. The resultinglength required is about 150 ft, regardlessof the source of power.

The hydraulic-pneumatic catapult hadreached a state of development enabling itto launch the Seahawk/Sea Venom genera-tion of aircraft satisfactorily, but furtherdevelopment for the new generation wasconsidered beyond the bounds of practicalengineering. Fortunately, the new slottedtube steam catapult design has arrived intime to enable it to be fitted to all aircraftcarriers before they are equipped with thelatest aircraft.

Little shows on deck. But it must beremembered that the installation of thesevery powerful catapults, with about threetimes the power of the hydraulic-pneu-matic catapults they succeed, has in-evitably involved a considerable penaltyon the ship in terms of valuable spaceoccupied and the top weight of the cata-pults, their associated accumulators andthe necessary structural stiffening. At highlaunching rates they have an additionalpenalty in that their steam consumptioninvolves an appreciable reduction in theamount of steam available for the ship'smain engines. In association with eachcatapult, it has also been found necessaryto provide catapult automatic loadingequipment and a jet blast deflector.

In the preceding type of carrier layout(now known as the axial deck) it wasnecessary to divide up the overall lengthas shown in the diagram on this page.Even in the days of the slower piston-engined aircraft, this ideal layout couldnot be fully achieved and, in fact, it wasnecessary to allow some of the areas tooverlap, thus producing a number ofminor accidents. With the new generationaircraft, a deck laid out in this style wouldhave to be a minimum of 1,100-1,200 ftlong. But because of the necessity to limitship sizes, for a variety of reasons includ-ing deck sizes and cost, the flight deck

TH E VICKERS MAGAZINE

AXIAL DECK

ANGLED DECKAn angled flight deck is a necessity for new jet aircraft . The number of arrester wires isreduced, barrier space is dispensed with, handling is speeded, parking space is increasedand the pilot is enabled to go round again if he misses an arrester wire. In both types of

deck, catapults are placed at the forward end of the deck park.

length cannot be more than about 750-800 ft; so it would be impossible to layout an axial deck on a British aircraftcarrier for the latest aircraft.

The invention of the angled deck solvedthis problem and the layout has been de-veloped as shown in the diagram. The

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length occupied by barriers and barrierpullout disappears completely. The num-ber of wires required is reduced from tento thirteen to four to six and, from thepilot's point of view, the most importantfeature is the ability to go round againin the event of missing an arrester wire.

THE VICKERS MAGAZINE

Fire precautions are of paramount importance. In the spacious hangar fire curtainsare fitted - shown (right) in the stowed position outside the hangar control room.

But from the ship constructor's point ofview this is not such a happy solution.He is now faced with building out a vastoverhanging structure on the port side,stressed for the landing of heavy aircraft.Topweight again rears its ugly head andthe overall beam of the ship becomesextremely clumsy. Canals and docks mustbe considered, as well as berthing prob-lems and the design of tenders, many ofwhich can only come alongside on thestarboard side.

In the piston-engined era the methodof deck landing was based on aiding thepilot to achieve the required accuracy ofpositioning and flying by means of signalsfrom a batsman standing on the after endof the flight deck. Each deck landing was,therefore, a team affair with responsibilityshared between pilot and batsman. Asclosing speeds increased - and they havenearly doubled in a decade the pilot-batsman combination was found to havelimitations and a consequent high accident

A helicopter descends gently to the flight deck of 'Hermes' during trials

rate. It was the limitations of this systemwhich necessitated the provision of a largenumber of arrester wires to ensure a rea-sonable chance of catching late touch-downs and avoiding a barrier crash.

To overcome the limitations of the pilot-batsman combination, a device called thedeck landing mirror sight was produced,consisting of a gyro-stabilised mirror inwhich the approaching pilot sees thereflection of a battery of lights. His move-ment up or down relative to the requiredstraight line approach path is indicatedby movement up or down of the reflectionhe sees in the mirror. He is thus giveninstantaneous and proportional informa-tion of any divergence he may have fromthe required approach path.

This device enables pilots to make anaccurate approach and touch-down veryclose to the selected point, thus reducingthe number of wires required to achieveany given percentage of catch. At thesame time, an angled deck reduces the

percentage of catch which is acceptable,e.g.. Perhaps five 'bolters' (aircraft whichdo not catch a wire and take an overshoot)in 100 landings would be acceptable in anangled deck carrier, whereas perhaps onein 500 would be the maximum tolerablein an axial deck carrier.

From the shipbuilding point of view thedeck landing mirror sight is an awkwardpiece of equipment. It has to be on theport side and, because it is part of theflight deck, it has to be mounted on a largeand very rigid sponson sticking out atleast 12 ft from the deck edge. Unfortu-nately, the required position may neces-sitate the sponson protruding even furtherfrom the centre line of the ship than theangled deck. There are, however, somecompensations to the shipbuilder. The re-

moval of the barriers and more than halfof the arrester wires has saved a good dealof weight and space, though of course thearresting engines now fitted to deal withthe landing weights of the modern aircraftare very much larger. Previously, twowires were rove to one arresting engine,whereas now each engine can only com-pete with one wire.

The high performance of the modernfighter must be complemented by theprovision of high performance radar. Thebig aerial which dominates the island ofHermes and Victorious like a giganticsearchlight, shows clearly what is neces-sary in this field and it is obvious that thismassive piece of machinery at such aheight must represent a major item of top-weights. Lifts to raise and lower an aircraftweighing perhaps 20 tons must be capableof making the trip from hangar to flightdeck in ten seconds and consequently areconsiderable pieces of engineering withthe inevitable weight and power penalties.

Another feature of the modern aero-plane which is not so obvious is the amountof ground and test equipment necessaryfor its servicing, so that, in addition to theactual weight of aeroplanes embarked,weight and space provision is also requiredfor all the equipment. And, as if all this isnot enough, maintenance of the modernaeroplane calls for greatly increased man-power, all of whom must be provided forand accommodated in the ship, and at ahigher living standard too.

That the shipbuilders have contrivedto fit all this into a ship no larger than herpredecessor is indeed a tribute to theircraftsmanship and design.