David Hobbs On Aircraft Carriers

Most readers probably will not have heard of David Hobbs.

He is one of the World's foremost experts on aircraft carriers and naval aviation.

He is also the author of many books on the subject.

A Century Of Carrier Aviation and Moving Bases are particularly recommended.

But if you don't wish to buy a book,you will find some of his work reproduced here,on the PhoenixThinkTank.


Just in case you can't find it,there is another,fuller article at the bottom of that page:


HERE!


Click to turn the pages.

China's New Aircraft Carrier?

Photograph of H.M.S.Exeter and H.M.S. Invincible laid up at Portsmouth on the 6th of September 2008 taken by Terry Whalebone.

The Daily Telegraph is reporting that a Chinese business man,Kin Bong Lam,wishes to buy the Royal Navy's  aircraft carrier Her Majesty's Ship (H.M.S.) Invincible.

Mr.Lam plans to turn the Ship in to a tourist attraction in either Liverpool or China.

This is not the first time the Chinese have attempted to acquire a foreign aircraft carrier.

The Majestic class aircraft carrier Her Majesty's Australian Ship (H.M.A.S.) Melbourne was bought by the Chinese in 1985 and then studied by the Peoples Liberation Army before being broken up years later.

In 1995,the Russians sold the heavy aircraft carrying cruiser Minsk to a South Korean businessman who then resold it to the Shenzen Minsk Aircraft Carrier Industry Company Limited.

It is now the centre of the "Minsk World" theme park in Dapeng Bay,Shatoujiao,Shenzen,China.

Minsk's brother ship Kiev,lead ship of his class, was sold by Russia to a Chinese company in 1996 and has been part of the Binhai "aircraft carrier amusement park" in Tianjin,China since2004.

More recently,in 1998,the former Soviet Aircraft carrier Varyag was purchased from the Ukraine by a Chinese businessman Cheng Zhen Shu of the Chong Lot Travel Agency for conversion into an "entertainment centre".

He was moved to Dalian in China where he has since been under refit as the People's Liberation Army Navy's first aircraft carrier.

China also has it's own famous land locked aircraft carriers,this is the "Military Education Center" at the "Orient Green Boat After-School Camp for Youngsters" on Dianshan Lake West of Shanghai.

There is also "Bin Zhou".

This is the "Ship Research Centre" in Wuhan.

H.M.S. Invincible was the lead ship in her class of "through deck cruisers" and a key participant in the Falklands War of 1982.

The other British aircraft carrier which served in that conflict,H.M.S.Hermes is now in service with the Indian Navy as Indian Naval Ship (I.N.S.) Viraat.

There is little the Chinese could learn from buying H.M.S. Invincible,a ship of great historical importance as the World's first "Harrier Carrier".

But if they don't buy her,like many historic British warships,including every British battleship,she will probably be scrapped.

In the past many old warships were put to other uses,this is the only reason most of them are still with us today.

M33 was at one time a floating office.

H.M.S.Warrior,one of the most historically significant ships in the World,was for many years a refuelling hulk.

H.M.S. Unicorn outlived all but one of her sisters because she spent her entire working life as a hulk.

Even H.M.S.Victory has been both a hospital and a school at various times.

It would be better to see Invincible turned in to a Chinese tourist attraction than to see her join the Teeside Navy.