Carrier machinery savings become hangar and aviation capacity

The initial Illustrious generation still reflects the ships' historical design logic, because early jet experience would not yet justify a fully angled flight deck. Smaller machinery spaces could instead permit taller or larger hangars, more protection, and an air group of perhaps forty-eight aircraft without deck parking. Later Implacable-class carriers could respond to higher landing speeds with stronger hydraulic catapults and revised flight-deck systems. Steam catapults are not an immediate problem because interwar launchers were hydraulic, although a boiler-free fleet might push later designers toward electrical systems or dedicated steam plants.