Centaur-class aircraft carrier  The "Centaur" class of aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy was the last of the light fleet carrier designs started during the closing years of World War II. The first ship of the original four in the class was commissioned in 1953 and the final decommissioned in 1984. The first three ships lacked an angled flight deck and were therefore unsuitable for fast jet aircraft, and production of a second batch of four carriers was cancelled. Originally conceived as a class of eight vessels, with the end of hostilities, work on all the ships was suspended and four units "Monmouth", "Polyphemus", "Arrogant" and "Hermes" were cancelled outright. The four remaining vessels remained uncompleted for the best part of a decade. The earlier light fleet carriers of the "Colossus" and "Majestic" classes were completed before work resumed on the larger ships. With the extended completion periods of the units, and the rapid advances in aircraft carrier design at the time of their building, it was almost inevitable that large differences should be seen between the various members of the class.  , the first to be completed, was commissioned in 1954. The ship had an axial flight deck and was thus unsuitable for operating the jets then rapidly supplanting piston engine aircraft in the Fleet Air Arm. "Centaur" was commissioned in Belfast and after completing her sea trials, she then steamed into Portsmouth Dockyard and for the next six months in 1954 the ship underwent a substantial reconstruction to provide for an interim (angled at 4 degrees, and not sponsoned out) angled flight deck and low powered steam catapults. However, service in this new configuration did not last long and the ship was decommissioned in 1965, but used as a harbour accommodation ship for a further six years. Conversion to a "commando carrier" configuration was cancelled in 1966. The final ship of the class started as "Elephant", but renamed as , she had a longer service life than any of the others in British hands. Not completed until 1959, some 15 years after being started, "Hermes" incorporated a full angled flight deck and other changes compared to "Centaur", "Albion" and "Bulwark". After fulfilling the role of a light attack carrier for a number of years, "Hermes" was converted to a commando carrier to replace "Albion" in the early 1970s. However, a return to operating fixed-wing aircraft beckoned at the end of the decade.