British aircraft production limited how quickly naval aviation could expand. The Air Ministry wanted Supermarine to concentrate its resources, and naval requirements competed with the Spitfire and Walrus programs. Seeking aircraft in America offered the Royal Navy a way around those constraints. In the proposed scenario, a tender fleet helps bring the naval air transfer forward to 1938 and creates a reason to order Catalinas that year. Delivery before the war would then give the Navy its own long-range maritime patrol aircraft. Tenders stationed off Africa or in the Falklands could support those patrols without waiting for a permanent airfield network.
Notable Point · 1:21:23-1:23:37
Could tenders have brought Catalinas into naval service before the war?
British production constraints and a larger independent Fleet Air Arm provide a proposed route to a 1938 Catalina order.