Adding a landing-on deck did not remove the machinery inherited from Furious's cruiser design. A large central funnel ran through the ship and reduced useful hangar capacity to about 35 aircraft, against roughly 50 in comparable ships. The machinery made sense for a fast cruiser, but its location poorly served aircraft stowage and movement. Routing the exhaust into a side island would have recovered internal volume. A flight deck could be added quickly, but a useful carrier also needed machinery arranged around aircraft stowage and movement.
Notable Point · 25:40-27:04
Furious's cruiser machinery constrains her hangar
Adding a landing deck did not erase the conversion's inherited central funnel, which cut aircraft capacity and exposed the cost of adapting a cruiser hull.