Why interwar development deserves weight

The difference here is one of emphasis: the 1920s and 1930s receive less sustained treatment than their importance to later naval performance warrants. One naval-aviation history devoted about ten times as much space to World War I and about thirty times as much to World War II as it did to the two interwar decades combined. Developing and changing aircraft was easier during peacetime than during wartime operations. The comparison between British readiness in 1939 and American equipment in 1941 and 1942 illustrates why two years of war did not automatically make development easier. The period was a long phase of experimentation with its own history.