Extra displacement could support a somewhat longer hull and either an eight-boiler, four-turbine, four-shaft machinery arrangement or a development of Ark Royal's six-boiler, three-shaft plant. The latter had already delivered about 110,000 to 111,000 shaft horsepower. This path quickly approaches the Implacable class, whose roughly 27,000-ton standard displacement and greater aircraft capacity show what a modestly higher treaty ceiling might have enabled. The comparison also notes that Implacable began under the 23,000-ton design limit before additions increased its displacement as wartime requirements changed. Treaty limits shaped machinery, dimensions, air-group growth, and the timing of carrier capability.
Notable Point · 20:43-23:57
How extra treaty tonnage points toward Implacable
A 25,000- to 27,000-ton treaty limit could have produced a longer, more powerful armored carrier approaching the Implacable class earlier.