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High resolution picture
High resolution picture
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The HMS Furious was a British aircraft carrier launched in 1916 as a battlecruiser of the Courageous class, but finished as a seaplane carrier in 1917.
Her silhouette after the first reconversion still resembled the one of a conventional warship. After
successive modifications during the interwar period, the HMS Furious arrived to the Second World War with a considerably different
appearance. Being larger than the HMS Hermes and the HMS Eagle, she resulted certainly more useful than those. The HMS Furious
provided a considerable service during the Second World War, but she was retired already in 1944 and sent to scrapping in 1948.
The upper illustration shows the HMS Furious after her second reconversion with flight decks after and before the conning tower; note the
rails to move the aircraft besides the funnel and the tower. It is shown as well the aircraft Sopwith Pup which the HMS Furious transported
in 1917-18. The first successful landing in the deck was performed with one of these aircraft, but the second attempt failed. The lower
illustration shows the HMS Furious in August 1941 after a radical reconversion, with a Seafire aircraft in the deck astern; note the
isle of very low profile and the abundant antiaircraft armament.
Class: Furious (1 unit - Furious)
Type: Aircraft carrier
Length: 240 meters
Beam: 26.9 meters as built; 32.7 meters in 1944
Draught: 6.6 meters as built; 7.3 meters in 1944
Displacement (full load): 22764 tonnes as built; 28960 tonnes in 1944
Propulsion: 4 x shaft, 4 x steam turbine Brown-Curtis, 18 x boiler Yarrow, 90820 horsepower
Speed: 30 knots (55.5 kilometers/hour)
Range: 6000 nautical miles (11100 kilometers) at 20 knots
Fuel (in 1944): 4074 tonnes of petrol
Complement: 745 as built; 1200 in 1944
Armament (in 1944): 12 x 102-millimeter 45-caliber cannon, 32 x 40-millimeter cannon, 22 x 20-millimeter cannon
Armor: 76 millimeters in belt, 51 millimeters in ends, 25 millimeters in forecastle deck/upper deck, 19-44 millimeters in main deck,
25-76 millimeters in lower deck
Aircraft (in 1944): 33
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