Implacable's 1939 design assumptions included aircraft projects then under consideration for the Fleet Air Arm. The carrier may have been intended to use an early Supermarine gull-wing naval Spitfire concept associated with the Seafire name. Its wing and undercarriage arrangement was expected to tolerate carrier-landing stresses better than the later wartime Seafire, whose airframe suffered in deck operations. An interim scout fighter might have served until Fairey Firefly became available. Fairey Barracuda's intended torpedo- and dive-bombing capability also raised the possibility of replacing Blackburn Skua in the projected air group. These remain tentative expectations for peacetime development, not a description of the ships' eventual wartime aircraft.
Notable Point · 39:11-40:59
The intended aircraft behind Implacable's design
Tentative fighter, scout-fighter, and strike-aircraft plans show how the carrier and its air group were expected to develop together.