Fuel management as carrier survivability

Early-war American vulnerability is contrasted with British experience gained from earlier carrier fires and foreign systems. Royal Navy fuel-management practice developed after a First World War seaplane-carrier fire and further study of German arrangements. By the time of Ark Royal and the Illustrious class, the system had passed through several generations of refinement. Armour and steel construction mattered, but neither removed the danger posed by aviation fuel in a hangar or on a flight deck. Better control and removal of fuel limited the sources of fire and the paths by which it could spread.