Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 4:29-4:37

Victorious as the angled-deck conversion test case

Victorious tested the conversion from an armoured straight deck to an angled deck, only for machinery problems to force expensive additional work.

Aircraft CarriersAngled Flight DecksHMS VictoriousNaval Modernisation
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Question

Was HMS Victorious the test case for converting an armoured straight-deck carrier to an angled deck?

Short answer

Yes, and machinery problems forced additional reconstruction that made the conversion much more expensive.

Notes

HMS Victorious served as the guinea pig for converting an armoured straight-deck carrier to an angled flight deck. The modernization did not remain confined to the aviation arrangements because the ship's engines also needed attention. Addressing that machinery problem meant removing work and doing parts of the conversion again. What looked like a focused postwar upgrade consequently expanded into a costly whole-ship reconstruction.