If each British carrier generation arrived one class larger

What changes if Illustrious-class carriers become Implacables, Implacables become Audaciouses, and Audaciouses become Maltas?

Britain could field larger wartime air groups and enter the postwar period with larger carrier hulls, provided the Fleet Air Arm grew quickly enough to use them.

Replacing the Illustrious class with Implacable-sized carriers is estimated to increase the normal air group from roughly forty aircraft to about eighty. That would permit more fighters and strike aircraft while retaining broadly similar armor protection. Illustrious could carry more aircraft with deck parking and a lighter, fighter-heavy complement, so the figures describe different operating arrangements. A heavier attack at Taranto could weaken Italian support for later Mediterranean operations and, through the proposed chain of events around Crete, leave a carrier available for Force Z. The Fleet Air Arm would have to expand earlier to supply the larger ships, creating a larger pool of personnel for subsequent operations. Audacious-sized replacements for the Implacables would add useful larger hulls late in the war. Malta-sized replacements for the Audacious class could leave Britain better equipped after 1945, with as many as three completions suggested if construction were sufficiently advanced.