Why British armoured carriers needed hangar height as well as area

Indomitable and the Implacable class increased hangar floor area, but the panel argues that designers did not increase hangar volume enough for aircraft whose wings folded upward. That distinction between square footage and cubic capacity mattered as naval aircraft grew taller and their wing-fold geometry changed. Designs whose wings folded backward would have suffered less from the same ceiling constraint. Ark Royal and Eagle are cited for relatively tall hangars, while Glorious and especially Furious illustrate less successful arrangements, including Furious's exhaust routing through the hangar. The watch point shows how an apparently small dimensional choice can govern which future aircraft a carrier can operate and how well it can be modernized.