Why published carrier aircraft capacities were not directly comparable

How much did British and American stowage practice account for their different published aircraft capacities?

It mattered substantially because US totals could include dismantled reserve aircraft, while British figures used different hangar and deck-park assumptions.

Published carrier capacity numbers were not always like-for-like. Royal Navy figures did not assume a permanent deck park in the same way as American totals. US numbers could include reserve aircraft suspended from the hangar ceiling with their wings detached. The comparison cautions against treating every paper total as the same number of aircraft ready for immediate operations.