Italy inherited Graf Zeppelin's carrier-operating problems

Italy was making the most serious European Axis effort to obtain an aircraft carrier, but chose catapults, arresting gear, and track handling associated with Graf Zeppelin. That decision imported German flight-deck problems into Aquila instead of drawing on the wartime experience of Japan or the established practice of other carrier navies. The arrangement constrained takeoff, landing, and hangar marshalling, creating operational difficulties before the ship ever entered service. These were familiar ideas that carrier powers had studied and rejected during the interwar period. The case warns against dismissing earlier failures on the assumption that the wrong people tried the idea, an argument driven by confidence and ego rather than evidence.