Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 2:21:19-2:21:57

Hermes, Ark Royal, and the real carrier-design generation gap

A twenty-year service-date pattern can mislead because Hermes and Ark Royal belonged to the same design era, while Invincible represented the later technological break.

Audacious Class Aircraft CarriersCarrier DesignHMS Ark Royal R09HMS Hermes R12Invincible Class Aircraft Carriers
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Question

Which was the greater technological leap: Hermes to Ark Royal, or Ark Royal to Invincible?

Short answer

Ark Royal to Invincible. Hermes and Ark Royal were different sizes but products of the same broad design era, whereas Invincible embodied a later carrier concept.

Notes

The question notices roughly twenty years between Hermes, Ark Royal, and Invincible. Hermes was a light fleet carrier and Ark Royal an Audacious-class fleet carrier, but both originated in broadly the same wartime design and development period. Their differing completion and service histories do not amount to a full generation of design progress between them. The more meaningful technological leap came with the Invincible class and its different conception of carrier operations.