What if Courageous and Glorious had survived?

How might the aircraft, guns, and flight arrangements of Courageous and Glorious have been modernized had they survived into 1941?

Their exact refits would depend on wartime availability, but plausible changes include twin 4-inch dual-purpose guns, more pom-poms, and a raised bow that lengthened the flight deck and expanded hangar and launch capacity.

Any wartime refit would depend on the weapons and yard capacity actually available. The carriers’ single 4.7-inch guns might be replaced by twin 4-inch dual-purpose mountings, while additional pom-poms would be fitted wherever space permitted. Courageous and Glorious had undergone fewer experimental alterations than Furious, so they may have retained more scope for reconstruction. Raising the bow to flight-deck level could lengthen the deck, enlarge the hangar, and create room for more powerful accelerators. Such a conversion would add forward weight, but it remained a plausible alternative to waiting for an entirely new carrier.