HMS Illustrious (R06)

HMS Illustrious was a light aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy and the second of three Invincible-class ships constructed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She was the fifth warship and second aircraft carrier to bear the name Illustrious, and was affectionately known to her crew as "Lusty". In 1982, the conflict in the Falklands necessitated that Illustrious be completed and rushed south to join her sister ship HMS Invincible and the veteran carrier HMS Hermes. To this end, she was brought forward by three months for completion at Swan Hunter Shipyard, then commissioned on 20 June 1982 at sea en route to Portsmouth Dockyard to take on board extra stores and crew. She arrived in the Falklands to relieve Invincible on 28 August 1982 in a steam past. Returning to the United Kingdom, she was not formally commissioned into the fleet until 20 March 1983. After her South Atlantic deployment, she was deployed on Operation Southern Watch in Iraq, then Operation Deny Flight in Bosnia during the 1990s and Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone in 2000. An extensive re-fit during 2002 prevented her from involvement in the 2003 Iraq War, but she was returned to service in time to assist British citizens trapped by the 2006 Lebanon War.

Following the retirement of her fixed-wing British Aerospace Harrier II aircraft in 2010, Illustrious operated as one of two Royal Navy helicopter carriers. After 32 years' service, the oldest ship in the Royal Navy's active fleet was formally decommissioned on 28 August 2014 even though she would not be replaced until HMS Queen Elizabeth's commissioning in 2017. Despite the UK Ministry of Defence's announcement in 2012 that, once decommissioned, Illustrious would be preserved for the nation, in 2016 she was sold and towed to Turkish company Leyal for scrapping.

This archive contains  both  Multiplayer ( others can land on it )  and a stand alone  AI version of the ship.  The AI version is equipped with  Weather responsive wave motion and is positioned in the Solent at 10kts and heading 120 - it'll be visible on your in game map but the closest airport is Lee on Solent.

This Carrier is suitable for VTOL Aircraft and Helicopters.

How to install:-

Download the  Ships files ("Download Now" above). Our download contains a data folder with the required files.  No addition files required.

Merge the data folder with your Flight Gear data folder.
Flight Gear can be a bit fussy when it comes to loading AI carriers, but it's great fun when they work so we recommend you follow a bit of a procedure which will help you get sorted.

Once you've got the steps above sorted and everything is installed load into Flight Gear in your carrier capable aircraft (or not - if you're feeling brave) and in this order:
  - Enable the AI Scenario "Carrier: MP  HMS_Illustrious-R06" and wait 20 seconds
  - Connect to Multiplayer - Ideally the same server as the MP carrier but if you're not sure use server 01, tick the boxes relating to MP carriers and latching
  - Wait for a bit while having the MP Carrier dialog box open (in the Multiplayer menu from the top bar)
The carrier you are looking for should populate in the box - ensure this has a check in the box.

You should now be able to see the carrier when close enough. You can find the Illustrious if your aircraft has TACAN by tuning to 025Y

If it doesn't come up in the MP Carrier box after 30 seconds or so, reconnect and disconnect from multiplayer 3 or 4 times after de-selecting and reselecting the AI Scenario. This normally sorts it.