Potential must be separated from demonstrated military utility. Exercises and trials could create confidence, but they could not settle how aircraft, ships, and doctrine would perform in war. Naval aviation in 1920, 1930, and 1939 represented different stages of a fast-moving technical and institutional development. Its advocates could reasonably expect progress without knowing that the mature carrier systems of 1944-45 would emerge. That uncertainty helps explain why navies retained battleships while continuing to invest in carriers rather than betting entirely on one form of sea power.
Notable Point · 27:47-29:28
Why 1939 navies could not treat carriers as proven
Carrier aviation had promise before WWII, but navies still lacked wartime proof of its reliability and combat effect.