Why the US Navy reached the flight-deck carrier late

The US Navy appears late to carrier construction despite being an early and energetic adopter of naval aviation. The delay came less from a shortage of ideas than from the difficulty of redirecting an established political and procurement program. Congressional interest remained attached to seaplane carriers while advocates for a flight-deck ship had to overcome institutional momentum. A British government with a parliamentary majority could authorize wartime experiments more directly, even while the Treasury resisted spending. Langley emerged only when the approaching treaty system and foreign progress made an experimental carrier harder to postpone.