Why tender operations do not scale to fleet carriers

The tenders handled one aircraft on a predictable, intermittent schedule, allowing crews to prepare the machinery in advance and maintain it during the long gap before the next launch. A fleet carrier instead had to combine landings, launches, hangar movement, lifts, maintenance, fuelling, and deck operations at sustained wartime tempo. Systems adequate for occasional use could demand much more upkeep or fail when driven at that volume. The operational gap means successful tender equipment was not proof that Germany possessed a working carrier-aviation system. The experience also remained largely with Lufthansa and the Luftwaffe rather than a Kriegsmarine carrier organization.