Aircraft complements reflected the Royal Navy's expected operating conditions. Armoured hangars and treaty-limited displacement reduced air-group mass, but promised a carrier that could remain useful after being hit rather than becoming a one-day asset. Ark Royal, Courageous, and Glorious appear as larger ships able to employ the Skua in more useful numbers, exposing how ship design shaped the aircraft's prospects. The choice was a force-design trade between sortie mass and keeping scarce carrier hulls operational after attack.
Notable Point · 2:21-3:35
Armoured carriers, air-group mass, and survivability
British carrier design traded air-group size for the ability to survive damage while operating far from repair facilities or under rapid Mediterranean air attack.