How Brunel might enlarge Britain's naval infrastructure

How might naval ship size change if Brunel had directed British warship construction?

He might build 300- to 350-metre slipways, giving later designers room for much larger carriers and capital ships.

Brunel's preference for unusually large engineering works provides the starting point. As chief naval constructor, he might leave the Royal Navy with slipways at least 300 metres long and perhaps 350 metres. Later designers would then face fewer inherited limits when laying down very large aircraft carriers and capital ships. The counterfactual illustrates how dockyard infrastructure built in one generation can determine the feasible fleet designs of another.