The July 1918 images show Furious assembling aircraft for the Tondern raid. Her August 1917 configuration had looked markedly different, leaving about eleven months between experimental forms. The wider comparison begins with Eugene Ely's 1910 takeoff from USS Birmingham. In less than eight years, naval aviation moved from rolling one aircraft off a temporary platform to launching a coordinated strike from a carrier. Aircraft and shipboard procedures had also become survivable enough to inspire greater confidence than the 1910 machines. The compressed timeline records rapid wartime advances in machinery, deck operations, aircraft design, and organization.
Notable Point · 27:04-28:08
The Tondern raid measures the speed of carrier learning
By July 1918, Furious could assemble and launch the Tondern strike, roughly eleven months after her previous configuration and less than eight years after Ely's first shipboard takeoff.