A carrier system poorly matched to northern waters

Graf Zeppelin adopted a French-style carrier-management approach that the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and Imperial Japanese Navy had each declined to copy. Contemporary criticism treated the concept as technologically immature for heavy seas and worldwide service rather than inherently impossible. A Mediterranean-focused fleet might have found the trade-off workable, but Graf Zeppelin was intended for the North Sea and North Atlantic. Weather and salt water threatened exposed gear, while the system demanded precise aircraft handling from crews at sea. Electrically operated octagonal elevators were rated to move aircraft of up to five and a half tons, but their geometry complicated the surrounding framing and damage-control problem. The lifts and steel flight deck show how an ingenious-looking mechanism could add structural and operational complications in northern waters.