Originally Posted by
John Eacott
Here you are
Thank you, John. You were of course the main 'someone' my plea was aimed at.
Technically there were two hangars on four decks, as each hangar took two deck spaces
If the DWO catches me informing people of such details, even like you in semi-jest, she threatens to order me to spend the middle watch on the sofa.
From what I understand the design and size of the hangars of the Audacious class (Eagle and Ark Royal) went through a number of iterations; driven in particular by the need to raise hangar height. I assume from drawings that the need for two hangars, offset from the centreline and not full length(?) was driven by the internal configuration, a design informed by lessons from the sinking of the previous Ark Royal. At the time of their initial design they would have been the largest carriers built, so total size can't have been the issue. I may of course be talking gash. I never saw the inside of either; I was still at school when the Ark was taken out of service and anyway only saw the outside of Eagle (when she was tied up in Pompey after her last commission).