Their islands gave pilots and controllers a useful visual and command reference, correcting one weakness of flush-deck carriers. The forward lower deck was meant to launch fighters while the main deck recovered aircraft, reducing reliance on elevators. It sat beneath the main flight deck's rounded bow, however, where the airflow formed a dangerous suction vortex. As fighters grew heavier and required longer takeoff runs, an awkward operation became nearly unusable. Eagle, Hermes, and Argus had already shown that a full upper deck worked, while extending the hangar and flight deck forward would have converted spare tonnage into durable aircraft capacity.
Notable Point · 35:05-39:20
Courageous and Glorious repeated a flawed flying-off deck
The lower flying-off decks on Courageous and Glorious promised simultaneous operations but produced poor airflow and quickly became unusable as fighters grew heavier.