Essex and Implacable: construction timing and air groups

The first Essex-class orders came in 1940, after Britain had already spent ten months at war. The United States could expand industry and observe the European fighting while it remained at peace for more than another year. Britain had meanwhile paused major construction and suffered carrier losses. The Essex design also followed the breakdown of the treaty system, making Implacable a closer British comparison than the earlier treaty-constrained Illustrious class. The quoted air groups are eighty-one aircraft for Implacable and ninety to one hundred for Essex. Those totals use different counting conventions: British figures count aircraft ready for operations, while the American total also includes reserve aircraft suspended in the hangar. The larger American hangars made that storage possible. Britain's planned force also included Unicorn as a forward aviation-support ship, so comparisons of individual carrier totals omit part of the supporting organization.