Eagle as the interwar carrier force's reliable backbone

Eagle was the dependable second step in British carrier development, less celebrated than the earliest experiments but essential to what followed. Her conversion produced an unusually tall hangar that did not extend across all the available hull length, one of the benefits and compromises of adapting a battleship. The Royal Navy operated her intensively through the 1920s and 1930s, and she likely could have remained valuable in second-line work throughout the Second World War had she survived. Her historical value came from sustained operational learning even though she was neither the first nor the most advanced carrier.