Distributed aircraft, carriers, and hybrid warships

US Navy Captain Chambers argued that aircraft should be spread across conventional warships rather than concentrated in one aviation vessel. The modern division between fixed-wing carrier aviation and helicopters carried by individual escorts follows both the centralized and dispersed approaches. Smaller uncrewed aircraft could extend the distributed model, while larger fixed-wing types would still require a carrier. Conventional warships commonly carried aircraft in the 1930s and 1940s until shipborne seaplanes declined and helicopters took over their role. HMS Vindictive represented a third approach in 1918, combining gunnery and carrier functions in one hull, but the small number of hybrids built over the following decades were unsuccessful.