Only Bearn's upper hangar supported flight operations; the lower level held workshops, assembly areas, and stored aircraft like an internal support carrier. Ready-use equipment narrowed a nominally 19.5-meter-wide hangar to 15 meters, exactly the width of the larger elevators and therefore a poor space for maneuvering aircraft. An extra crew deck lowered the forward fighter section to five meters even though the converted battleship hull offered other accommodation space. Aircraft and heavy equipment moved on overhead rails, and transfers to the lower level required suspending aircraft beneath an elevator platform. Other carriers were already operating without this system by Bearn's 1927 commissioning, making the complexity a choice rather than an unavoidable experimental step.
Chapter · 27:10-35:05
Bearn's two-level hangar turned aircraft flow into rigging work
Narrowed working space, a low fighter section, and overhead rails for suspending aircraft between two hangar levels made Bearn's internal arrangement complex and hazardous at sea.