Historical sources may list a carrier's aircraft carried rather than its operational air group. The larger figure could include machines under maintenance, boxed British reserves, or American aircraft stored in pieces in the hangar rafters. Those practices make simple numerical comparisons between interwar carriers misleading. HMS Unicorn represented a different British solution by concentrating spare aircraft and repair support in a forward aviation support ship for the fleet's carriers.
Notable Point · 1:08:09-1:09:54
Aircraft carried and the operational air group measure different things
Interwar carrier totals often included aircraft under repair, boxed reserves, or disassembled spares rather than only the flyable operational air group.