If World War I had not begun in 1914, carrier design work appears advanced enough for an order in 1915 to be plausible. A Hermes-like ship could have tested a continuous flight deck as a purpose-built design. Surviving notes and comparison with the development of other ship types support that timeline, but the case is explicitly inconclusive. Naval aviation already had enough institutional recognition for such an order to be possible. The wartime pause in construction interrupted that development. Renewed activity around 1916 and the start of official Hermes design work strengthen the argument that an earlier order was within reach.
Chapter · 22:40-24:54
A 1915 carrier order is plausible if war does not interrupt
Prewar design work supports a tentative case for a Hermes-like carrier order in 1915, although the surviving notes do not prove it would have happened.