Hipper is the strongest Kaiserliche Marine carrier candidate

Which Kaiserliche Marine officers would be most likely to become effective aircraft-carrier commanders?

Hipper is the first choice, with von Spee also promising and Scheer a possible candidate, though practical carrier experience would be needed to judge any of them.

Hipper is the first choice because he thinks carefully about scouting operations. Von Spee is another promising candidate, while Scheer is not dismissed. These are judgments about how their existing abilities might transfer to a new weapon, and practical experience would be needed to test them. Philip Vian provides a caution against assuming that an officer's previous specialty determines carrier aptitude: he came from destroyers and nevertheless became a capable carrier commander.