Q&A · 3:03:47-3:04:41

Why Hood repeatedly gained and lost aircraft facilities

A viewer asks how a rebuilt Hood might carry aircraft, and the answer reviews her changing interwar fighter and floatplane arrangements.

Question

How might a rebuilt Hood have carried aircraft, and what had earlier arrangements shown?

Short answer

Hood repeatedly carried turret fighters and a catapult floatplane, but her rolling made launch unreliable enough that aviation facilities were repeatedly reconsidered.

Notes

Hood carried flying-off platforms on her main turrets during the 1920s and later received a catapult for a larger seaplane. These arrangements were fitted, altered, and removed across successive refits rather than forming one permanent aviation system. Her long, narrow, high-speed hull rolled enough to make floatplane launch hazardous outside favorable weather. A later hangar proposal had to solve an operational stability problem as well as find deck space.