Captain Boothby proposed replacing Britain's six waterborne carriers with thirty-one airships, each carrying six aircraft. The responding paper challenged their housing demands and their ability to operate in severe fleet weather, while noting that the US Navy had not replaced ships with its own airship experiments. The scheme was another attempt to exploit a gap between naval treaties and unregulated air power. A less radical version could use airships to extend a carrier strike's range, although fighters and radar would make such large airborne supports exceptionally vulnerable.
Notable Point · 1:45:07-1:50:50
A 1934 proposal would replace six carriers with 31 airships
The Royal United Services Institution debate tested airship carriers as a cheaper, treaty-exempt alternative and as possible strike extenders.