Landing-speed limits and the naval-aircraft power gap

Royal Navy requirements imposed low landing speeds, including recovery with weapons aboard and the loads from arrestor wires and barriers. That constraint helped keep biplane layouts in service, while heavier naval equipment made power-to-weight ratio an increasing problem. Aircraft in the middle range of roughly a thousand horsepower often lacked enough surplus power, as the Fulmar and early Barracuda demonstrated. Carrier aircraft had to balance low-speed handling, structural loads, mission equipment, and engine power rather than optimize one characteristic alone.