Furious demonstrates the wartime value of an old conversion

Furious provides the nearest historical guide to what surviving Courageous-class carriers might accomplish. Her battle honours included Narvik, Norway, the Malta convoys, and North Africa, demonstrating repeated frontline employment rather than a purely training or transport role. Photographs show Hurricanes on deck, and the ship later operated Barracudas while receiving improved anti-aircraft weapons. Her step-by-step conversion also left more structural compromises and funnel trunking than the later Courageous and Glorious conversions. That made a further full-length-deck reconstruction harder for Furious, but her operational record still proves that an elderly converted hull could deliver useful carrier aviation throughout the war.