Ark Royal and the Yorktowns belonged to the wider 1930s change from converted ships to hulls designed around fleet aviation. Ark Royal supplied design foundations for the later British armoured-carrier and light-fleet programmes. The Yorktown class provided the United States with mature fleet carriers before its enormous wartime construction effort came fully online. Their influence extended beyond their own battles to the carrier programmes built from those design foundations.
Chapter · 18:50-19:27
From carrier conversions to fleet programmes
The 1930s carrier generation mattered because purpose-built ships established paths toward British armoured and light-fleet carriers as well as American wartime fleet-carrier strength.