Small carriers become practical laboratories for deck-edge lifts

Interwar designers could not rely on computer-aided design or simulation, so building a ship was the surest way to test a carrier concept. Wasp's port-side outrigger lift illustrates the space and weight advantages of moving an elevator out of the flight deck. In the alternate programme, small carriers would provide repeated opportunities to try arrangements like this. With ten or twelve hulls, a disappointing experiment could become a training or reserve ship. A failed design among only five or six fleet carriers would have much greater consequences. Cheaper, more numerous carriers could therefore absorb more experimental risk and provide lessons for the larger ships.