The Illustrious class was designed before radar-based fighter direction had become a working operational system. Visual warning methods lost value as aircraft speeds increased, leaving less time to intercept an approaching strike. North Atlantic weather made deck parking hazardous, while hangar height and wing-fold requirements limited which aircraft could be carried below. The Fleet Air Arm's reliance on larger two-seat types further reduced the number of aircraft that fitted, making air-group size a product of aircraft and operating doctrine as well as hull dimensions. Supermarine's abandoned gull-wing naval fighter provides a cautious counterfactual: a purpose-built single-seater might have raised Illustrious-class air-group strength earlier, but it was never developed.
Notable Point · 1:30:37-1:34:49
Pre-radar assumptions constrain carrier air groups
Visual fighter control, rough-water deck parking, hangar height, wing folds, and two-seat aircraft all shaped British carrier capacity before radar matured.