What a 30,000-pound carrier-aircraft requirement means

What was the Royal Navy’s proposed 30,000-pound carrier aircraft?

The number was probably an all-up operating limit, not an empty aircraft weight, leaving room for fuel and a substantial weapon load.

The answer warns against reading the figure as the aircraft’s bare weight. A carrier requirement normally includes fuel, crew, weapons, and other loads in the all-up take-off or landing mass. Designers would also leave a safety margin below the stated deck-handling limit. An airframe around twenty-seven thousand pounds when loaded could therefore carry several heavy bombs or torpedoes while remaining within a thirty-thousand-pound carrier requirement.