Construction
Her keel was laid by Swan Hunter at Wallsend on 7 December 1978. She was launched on 20 June 1981 sponsored by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and commissioned on 1 November 1985. Originally intended as Indomitable in line with her sister ships (Invincible and Illustrious), public resentment at the scrapping of the previous Ark Royal (Britain's last large aircraft carrier up to that date) in 1980 led the Royal Navy to announce that the name would be revived on the new ship. The unfinished Ark Royal was reportedly offered for sale to the Royal Australian Navy in 1981. HMS Invincible was later offered for sale instead.
Read more about this topic: HMS Ark Royal (R07)
Famous quotes containing the word construction:
“When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“The construction of life is at present in the power of facts far more than convictions.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)
“There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)