HMS Illustrious: By The Numbers
HMS Illustrious left port for the final time today.
Despite last minute efforts to save and possibly turn her into a military museum, HMS Illustrious has been sold to a Turkish scrapyard.
"Lusty" has had a long service history starting with the Falklands, Iraq during the first Gulf War, Bosnia, Sierra Leone in 2000 and then Lebanon in 2006.
She'll be recycled, largely as razor blades.
As almost all her 22,000-tonne weight is steel, she should do her part to rid the planet of facial hair by making (at a very rough estimate) approximately 12,000,000,000 razor blades!
She was ordered in May 1976, laid down in October 1976, launched in December 1978, and formerly commissioned in June 1982.
With a 210 metre-long deck, she's been able to host 22 helicopters in her recent service life, and 22 Harrier Jump Jets before that.
Her range of 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km, or 5,8000 miles) have enabled her to serve this widely, arriving on deployments in plenty of time because of a top speed of over 30 knots (56 km/h, or 35 mph), and a cruising speed of 18 knots (33 km/h or 21 mph).
This was enabled by a Rolls-Royce Olympus TM3B gas turbine engine providing 97,000 horsepower.
Along with the 685 crew and Harriers that she carried, helicopters hosted by Illustrious included Chinooks, Apaches, Merlins, Lynxes, and Sea Kings.
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