Why the US Navy calls design batches flights

Why does the US Navy call successive versions of a ship class flights rather than batches?

Flight is established US Navy terminology for an evolutionary production version. An association with aviation and technological progress is suggested, but the term's origin remains unestablished here.

Flight is the US Navy term used here for successive versions within a ship class. The proposed connection with aviation's technological image is an interpretation, with no documented origin supplied for the word. Historically, American usage also included batches and new class names for fairly small changes. Interwar destroyer classes illustrate how vessels given separate names could be understood as successive stages of one evolving design.