HMS Furious and the experimental carrier strike

Furious had separate takeoff and landing decks divided by a central superstructure, with hangars and lifts arranged around a visibly experimental layout. Her conversion began with a forward flying-off deck while she retained her after gun, then added an aft landing deck before the central superstructure was removed in a later rebuild. The proposed Wilhelmshaven strike would have used her speed to approach closely while staying beyond coastal guns and minefields. Her small air group could not match the mass of later carrier battles, but it could attack, recover, rearm, and return. Early carrier design and an operational concept for persistent harbour attack developed together.