Posted on 07/22/2014 12:04:45 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
'Lusty' has returned home after 32 years of service with decommissioning ceremony to be held later this year
Will be replaced by HMS Ocean which has received £65m refit until next generation of aircraft carriers are built
Illustrious was rushed into service for the Falklands War, and has served in Bosnia, Sierra Leone and Lebanon
Vice Admiral Sir Philip Jones praises her 'long and proud history' and says she has 'protected nation's interests'
685ft-long vessel Illustrious could be turned into floating museum in tribute to decommissioned class of warship
Greeted by waving bikini-clad women standing in the water, it was quite an arrival for HMS Illustrious which today sailed home for the last time. The Royal Navy's helicopter carrier made her way into Portsmouth Naval Base for the final time ahead of her being retired next month. Following 32 years of service, ‘Lusty’ has returned home to Hampshire with a decommissioning ceremony to be held later in the year. She was welcomed by thousands of former sailors, their families and other spectators, with many of the well-wishers fearing for her future. The carrier will be replaced by HMS Ocean, which has just received a £65million refit, until the next generation of aircraft carriers come into service.
In the water: Women and men wave to HMS Illustrious from the beach at Old Portsmouth in Hampshire, on her way to Portsmouth Naval Base
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2701502/HMS-Illustrious-sails-home-port-time-retired.html#ixzz38E3LtTDB Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
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What great Assets.
Not sure why Lusty gets to be retained as a museum, other than being the last of the three sisters to leave service. Invincible (now scrapped) was class leader and the Falklands vet, Ark Royal (also scrapped) served in more conflicts and will probably be the last carrier to bear the RN’s most storied carrier name.
Heck, if any existing RN carrier deserves to be sitting in Portsmouth complementing Victory and Warrior as representative ships of their respective ages it’s Hermes.
Brit girls. Just so long as they don’t turn around and smile ...
still looks like it could be useful.
Mermaids have always attracted sailors!
Looks are deceiving. 32 years of salt water on pipes, valves, and boilers take their toll.
No boilers, she uses Olympus gas turbines, the maritime version of the engines that powered the Concorde.
No boilers to make fresh water?
The waste heat from the gas turbines would be excellent for heating sea water for making fresh water.
Those look a lot better than the usual pudgy, chain smoking English chicks.......
HMS Pinafore plies the boards for a final time at the local opera house.
YEAH BABY!
Uh-oh! He referred to that ship as ‘she’! Isn’t that sexist?! ;-)
I’d like to see the girl in white turn around.
They’ve certainly taken their toll on me.
Like all gas turbine ships they have a desalinization system to make fresh water. Most ships today use a reverse osmosis purification plant. I imagine Illustrious does too.
The Indians have Hermes at the moment (INS Viraat). It is due to be decommissioned in 2017, it remains to be seen what will happen to her after that...
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