By 1918 Furious had changed rapidly from her first flying-off arrangement into the Royal Navy's principal operational carrier. Aircraft landed aft and launched forward, with exterior routes around the superstructure linking the working areas. The arrangement was dangerous and short-lived, but from 1918 to 1921 she was effectively the carrier available when a fleet needed aviation facilities. Her deck routes also foreshadowed later ideas for moving and maintaining aircraft away from the main flying area, including concepts considered for the CVA-01 design. The comparison shows that some apparently modern carrier-layout problems had already appeared during the service's earliest experiments.
Chapter · 24:20-26:45
Furious becomes the Royal Navy's operational carrier
From 1918 into the early 1920s, Furious served as the fleet's principal practical carrier and tested a split flight-deck arrangement.