My brother was on the USS Shangri-La during fleet training with allied navies, mainly the Royal Navy, in the 1970s. One of the highlights of the exercise, was when his flight crew went over to a British small bow and dined with the officers, and were served complete cooked meals, followed by a choice of beer or rum. The Brits have since discontinued serving alcohol aboard ship, but for him it was a real treat.

A outrora poderosa Royal Navy!! Hoje não é nem a sombra do que era , infelizmente!!!😢

Shame The title couldn't get the name right, It is HMS ARK ROYAL a K not a C.

Yup, got the Airfix 1/48 Buccaneer, Gannet and Sea King in my stash. How did the Royal Navy find me?

Porque no estuvo en Malvinas en 1982?

Awesome video! .. I still have memories of HMS Eagle when it visited NZ in the early 70's and I Buccaneer, Sea Vixens. I have an Airfix 1/72 Buccaneer and recently Airfix 1/48 Sea King. I watched the series Sailor in the 70's about HMS Ark Royal. Rod Stewart he sang the theme and he married Kiwi model Rachel Hunter.. cheers mate from NZ🇳🇿

I worked this deck as a Yellow Jacket, 1970. Alongside a lot of those in this film. It was without a doubt the most exiting thing that I have ever done either before or after.

Awesome footage !

This when we had a real navy and fleet air arm-

5:56 what would have caused the Buccaneer to briefly tip back on its main gear like that?…pitch and roll of the ship? It’s dropped the arrestor cable so it’s not that retracting?

Spent 21/2 years on 205 Sqn in Changi 1965-1967. Several detachment to Gan for a couple of weeks each time on SAR duties. There was a war going on then so spent many night hours flying up and down the Malacca Straits. A great tour

This video brought back so many memories! In November 1959, my late father (Frank R. Jones) was posted to RAF Changi as a Pathologist. He was a Squadron Leader. He was accompanied by his wife, Eileen, and 4 young children. I was the eldest at 8 years old. We flew out to Singapore in a Britannia. The flight out was much delayed: firstly by a puncture and then an engine fire. We took off some 24 hours late! I don't know if this was an RAF or civilian flight. We stopped in Istanbul and somewhere in India (Calcutta?). Maybe someone here might know. The images of Singapore city and Changi bring back so many memories. Swimming, sailing, canoeing was how I spent a lot of my free time. I went to the RAF Changi primary school along with my brother and oldest sister. My Mum was a teacher at the school and the school uniforms in the film were exactly as I remember them! In July 1962, my Mum and I flew back to the UK so that I could start at grammar school. We flew in a RAF Transport Command Comet with overnight stops at Gan and El Adam (?) in north Africa. My Mum was the only woman on Gan that evening and was entertained in the Officers Mess by another RAF doctor - Brian Kelly. He had taken his speedboat to Gan in the bomb bay of a Shackleton so the that people could water ski. My Mum returned to Changi after settling me into school. The family left Changi in October 1962 and returned to the UK on the SS Canberra. My father retired from the RAF in April 1989: he was an Air Commodore and CO of IPTM, RAF Halton when he left. He died in July, 2000. Mike Jones.

Ark (as opposed to Arc) Royal. But a great video regardless. Thank you for posting.

If we had the Ark Royal during the 1982 Falklands war we could have had an extended distance of air cover over our fleet. In consequence we lost more ships and more importantly lives than we should have. A big thank you to the short sighted politicians for scrapping the Ark Royal and not replacing it with a proper aircraft carrier. As usual, the penny pinching shortsightedness of politicians was paid for with the lives and blood of the armed forces.

The buck couldn’t land easily, the flight deck was to high😂😂

this video is priceless, watched it numerous times, the flight deck activity and skill is fabulous, another classic carrier op is this beauty from 1964 on USS Roosevelt, enjoy 🇦🇺 kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJDYnKmoi62baassi=tu2bzsBWle0FAgQj

Fancy landing an F4 on that thing 😮 Balls of steel

Ark Royal would have made a huge difference to the Falklands war if it hadnt been scrapped a few years before. (Probably the Argentine invasion wouldnt have even happened) The capability of Buccaneers and Phantoms in the South Atlantic would sorted things out pretty quickly, also having Gannet AEW would have prevented the major losses of several ships during the conflict. A huge loss of capability that still hasnt been fully replaced, even with the new QE class carriers...

Those little bomblets are adorbs!

I'd recommend watching the entire Sailor series from the bbc in '76 - back in the day when tv was watchable

Even though this is from the 80s & it's British, I still love to watch it

Great upload mate

Incredible nerve and levels of skill by these guys , which applied to carrier-based pilots of all Navies.

fanatstic video,love seeing the smoke from the RR Spey engines on the Bucc & F4 FGR1's,reminds me of the F4 flying displays at Mildenhall back in the 80's & early 90's by the FGR2's fantastic

Fantastic footage, thank you JM, subscribed.

Looking at Phantom's plonking themselves down on a boat seems very much like a time before health & safety.

The royal navy came up with the aircraft carrier concept back in WW1 with HMS Argus which was a converted ocean liner used as a test platform for launching and recovering aircraft. HMS Ark (not Arc, Noah never captained her) royal was the last CATOBAR carrier the RN had before the launch of the 'through deck cruisers' of the Invincible class. We've got the QE class carriers now which are fabulous ships but I can't help but look at where we are now vs what we once had in the fleet without an overwhelming sense of sadness. Our politicians have so much to answer for the decline in our military and general standing as a nation. When the call to arms comes again, and rest assured it is coming, I wonder who will answer to the perilous state we've left our armed forces in then?

0:31 - Your hearing loss was indeed service related...

I love the RAF Phantoms. Great watch.

How it was allowed for this ship and its capability to be scrapped and not long before the Falklands war was a NATIONAL DISGRACE!! Even now with two new air carriers.... There not running at full capacity etc.

And what does the RN have now? One bare bones carrier and a handful of F35B.

This channel has gone from 200% to 10000%. Amazing content!!!!

8:20 The RAF version of "Q" thanks for the vid 😊

I was at RAF Lossiemouth when the Navy finally left the station, the Gannets flying out to the ARC. I stood in my back bedroom watching tons of stores being helicoptered out to the Arc which was fairly close inshore in the Moray Firth. Up to that point a Gannet taxing by was a common site. I often stood out on the line watching them landing.

Fine presentation, sir. Liked seeing the Bucs, Phantoms, Gannets, and Wessex.

I grew up watching documentaries that came from the UK. They were informative, undramatic and very educational. I'm not sure that they'e been bettered since.

I saw a follow up video from the Ark Royal series . The bolter incident pilot was given a pretty severe bollocking when the cameras weren't there - he was pretty disgruntled talking about it .

The Bucc and the Gannet, my favourite British seaplanes in one video. Thank you.

Cracking film!

Rumour has it that his nav in the back seat is still receiving counselling.

Rumour has it that the Buccaneer pilot spent so long trying to land, the Admiralty were worried he might not make it before the Ark was scrapped.

Why do the radio transmissions sound so awful,yet if you listen to the American radios from around the same era they sound so clear.

Quelle belle observation !

I am very proud to see skilful Turkish pilots flying perfectly.

Thank you! You're a life saver! I can't tell you how long and hard I've been looking for this exact detail. Everyone wants to take images of the whole plane, but no-one goes in close like this. You are BRILLIANT!

Ahead of it's time.

Some interesting comments. Britain lived beyond its means for decades, as someone correctly pointed out below, we spent the US Marshall plan money on defence rather than investment. We deluded ourselves that we were still a great power, running 10 aircraft carriers and keeping tens of thousands of troops in the middle east and far east. We were spending up to 10% of GDP on defence. In the late 50s the money started to run out and the cuts began. Incoherent defence planning which can be laid at the door of politicians caused the contraction and virtual extinction of British defence industry. After the early 90s when the Warsaw Pact disappeared, all the politicians lost interest in defence. "There are no votes in defence" was a common phrase in MOD in which I worked for 40 years. The cuts continued, the welfare spending and foreign aid soared. Until we reached the point where we are again deluding ourselves that we are still world class and "Services of global reference" . The reality is that we could easily be defeated by Turkey since we have no mass, no depth and very little actual capability. This has nothing to do with immigration or social decline ( btw it would be difficult to find anyone more opposed to mass immigration than me). This is all about political choices and the majority of the electorate have no knowledge of or interest in the Armed Forces or what they do.

My uncle was in the RAF Marine Craft Service, did a tour at Gan and 2 tours at Marsaxlokk in Malta with 1151 MCU. Great holidays in Malta as a teenager.

OMG has the king arrived!

"Report outer marker (..)" Oh my god, the nostalgy