The first aircraft carriers cannot fairly be measured against a settled template because their navies were inventing the type. The scope covers ships commissioned in full carrier configuration by 1940, when naval aviation was still changing rapidly. The tests are common sense, logical use of the available hull, and whether later designs absorbed experience from carriers already in service. This makes the lecture a study of institutional learning as much as a catalogue of technical faults.
Chapter · 2:05-6:07
How to judge the first aircraft carriers
An early carrier is defined here as a ship commissioned in carrier form by 1940, raising the question of how experimental designs can be judged before a mature standard exists.