Design efficiency here means the capability extracted from a ship's displacement rather than raw size alone. Committees and political compromises can add systems that compete for weight and volume without producing proportionate value. A dual-purpose battery can cover heavy anti-aircraft and surface roles with one gun family, easing spares, training, and ammunition supply. Furious carried about 36 aircraft at roughly 22,900 tons, while the slightly larger Courageous and Glorious conversions managed 48. Scaling the purpose-built Hermes arrangement to those hulls suggests about 60 aircraft, a measure of how much internal layout mattered.
Notable Point · 43:29-45:25
Useful volume and simpler armament define design efficiency
A comparison of early carriers defines efficiency as useful capability per ton and uses dual-purpose guns to show how simpler systems reduce training, spares, and ammunition burdens.