Audacious: survivability versus aircraft growth

Although completed after the war, Audacious was a wartime-informed development of the Implacable concept: a larger carrier with continued protection and enough aircraft for the Royal Navy's intended tasks. Wartime construction priorities favoured light fleet carriers for immediate service while Audacious and Malta were shaped for the post-war fleet. Completed as HMS Eagle, the design had a four-inch waterline belt, a flight deck protected by one to four inches of armour, and one-inch armour on the hangar sides and deck. Survivability therefore remained central as the carrier grew. Aircraft growth created a separate problem because larger airframes needed more room for parking and movement. A ship planned for about sixty earlier aircraft could carry nearer forty-five of the larger aircraft available when it entered service in 1951.