HMAS Melbourne carrier

Many thanks the info Badger.

Ive done a little more digging and found that they removed Melbourne’s entire flight deck for use as a training aid and that her basic hull was rumoured to still be extant in 2002.

Another myth in circulation for years. Her deck was scrapped with the rest of the ship. Flight deck equipment such as the catapult and arrestor gear were removed for study but the deck itself was just steel, and only of benefit if still attached to a moving ship. The rumours came about because a replica of Melbourne’s flight deck was painted onto the concrete of a Chinese airbase for trials, something all carrier operating nations do. The French have a full sized replica of CdG’s flight deck painted onto the concrete of the main base for her air group. At RNAS Culdrose their is a full sized replica of an Invincible class CVS flight deck. Even the Russians have a dummy deck for training, though unfortunately it is now in the Ukraine and they have to rent it periodically when required. Most USN air bases have dummy decks painted onto the runway with projector sights alongside so that aviators can practice their approaches before they join their carrier. It is very useful for training ground crew as well as flight crew as it gets them used to working in cramped conditions as opposed to the wide expanses of an airbase. Melbourne alas is long gone.

Many thanks the info Badger.

Ive done a little more digging and found that they removed Melbourne’s entire flight deck for use as a training aid and that her basic hull was rumoured to still be extant in 2002.

The bit about using it for training is a distortion of the reality… they removed the catapult (some reports also say the arresting gear) and installed it at a land air base, where they used that part for testing & development.

The rest of the ship certainly was scrapped,

The amusement park-carriers are the ex-Russian “aircraft-carrying Cruiser” Kiev & Minsk.

The military-connected Chinese carrier is Varyag (some debate on the actual status of the latter).

In 1996 Kiev was sold to a Chinese company, and has been part of the military theme park in Tianjin since 1 May 2004.

In 1995 Minsk was sold to a South Korean businessman, and later resold to Shenzhen Minsk Aircraft Carrier Industry Co Ltd, China. Until 2006, when the company went bankrupt, Minsk was part of a military theme park in Shatoujiao (沙头角) district, Shenzhen called “Minsk World”. The aircraft carrier was put up for auction on 22 March 2006. No bids at the starting price of 128 million RMB (approx. 16 million U.S. dollars) were received, so the carrier was withdrawn from sale. On 31 May 2006, the Soviet aircraft carrier was finally auctioned off in Shenzhen for 128 million RMB. Minsk theme park was evaluated to be worth 160 million yuan (20 million U. S. dollars) and a new round of auctioning will be held soon, according to the Guangdong-based Xuda auctioneers, which has been commissioned to handle the sale of the ship.

In early 1998 a Macau-based tourist and amusement company bought the unfinished (70%) 67,500t ex-Soviet Navy Kuznetsov class aircraft carrier Varyag for US$20 million. The company claimed that the ship would be converted into a floating amusement park and Casino in Macau, and the contract with Ukraine stipulated that the buyer can’t use the carrier for military purposes. Before handing the ship over, the Ukrainians removed the ship’s electronic equipment and powerplant to prevent it from being turned into a commissionable warship. In March 2002, following a three-year delay by Turkish authorities who denied the carrier passage through the Bosporus Strait, the Varyag finally arrived in Dalian Shiyard in northern China for refurbishment.

Varyag has been in Dalian Shipyard since 2002 and it became clear that the ship would not become an amusement park. Instead the ship was handed to the PLA Navy for research and restoration. It was speculated that following extensive studies the ship would be finally converted into a fully operational aircraft carrier for training purpose. This was partially confirmed when the ship emerged from a Dalian Shipyard dry dock painted in PLAN grey in 2005.

AFAIK they looked it over and then scrapped it.

It was in very poor condition after retiring.

Wondering if anyone has any pictures of her in her current state today?

She was sold for scrap to China in 1985 however it is known that it was never scrapped and was used to train PLAN pilots on aircraft carrier operations, the Chinese also undertook a massive amount of technical studies on the ship, mostly relating to design, structure, layout ect.

Last information i have on Melbourne is that it had been largely overhauled and is now being used as a tourist attraction although it remains theoretically serviceable should the need arise, it does sound a little too good to be true to me but with the secretive nature of the Chinese military i suppose it is possible.

Hmmmm… In 1985 Melbourne was a rotted-out rust pile. I doubt she’s in any way servicable today, and there is no evidence any Chinese pilots were trained in carrier ops on her (not technically possible anyway). The Chinese may well have gone over the ships for idea’s in how to make cheap throw-away merchant carriers using 60 year-old technology, but there really isn’t much to get out of it.