Carrier aviation under a different treaty balance

Courageous, Glorious, and Furious remain potential British conversions, but the revised carrier allowance could favour later ships resembling the Implacable class. Such a design would combine much of Illustrious's protection with an air group closer to Ark Royal's, rather than forcing the same historical compromise between armour and aircraft capacity. Better underwater protection and earlier experience with larger carriers could also improve wartime survivability and damage-control practice. The American position is less certain because battlecruiser completion reduces the number of obvious conversion hulls, yet America or Washington could still be converted. The US Navy might then develop carriers around Lexington battlecruiser scouting formations or invest its tonnage in more viable smaller designs, reshaping naval aviation before the Second World War.