The Bullwark example combines sixteen Sea Hawks, eight Sea Venoms, six Gannets, four Skyraiders, five Whirlwinds, and a Dragonfly in a forty-aircraft group. The carrier's wartime design had been discussed in terms of sixty or even more piston aircraft. Larger jets, bulky radar aircraft, helicopters, and their support equipment consumed more deck and hangar volume even as the mix became more capable. Force structure therefore depends on aircraft dimensions, role diversity, and support requirements rather than hull size alone.
Notable Point · 2:46:36-2:53:57
Bigger aircraft reduced a carrier's air-group count
A late-1950s carrier could operate a sophisticated forty-aircraft group, but larger jets, AEW aircraft, and helicopters displaced the sixty or more piston aircraft imagined during wartime design.