Audacious class built 1940

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It would probably require Britain being about as dis-honest as everyone else about Treaty Limits?

Something along the lines of working in 3000 Tons of "Improvements" into the original Illustrious design and "accidentally" miscalculating displacement so the ship came out 10-20% overweight.
So that they came out more in the 31,000+ Standard Tonnage range in 1936, at least!?

It wasn't that bad. The original Audacious class design (note the OTL Ark Royal was NOT the Audacious design) came in at a bit under 24,000t. With a treaty limit of 23,000t this isn't bending the treaty by much.
Granted by the time they'd built it it would be more overweight, but by then is war and who cares?
 
It would probably require Britain being about as dis-honest as everyone else about Treaty Limits?
Claim they're extra large Ark Royals, with Ark's limited armour. Once the war's on, add the armour you've been hiding away to the ships on the slipway.
 
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Here is some Pictures that might prove useful for any ATL (I've used a broad brush for artistic License - the first is Ark Royal being launched and the other 3 are HMS Eagle)

HMS Audacious Launched in late 1943 - she was fitted out and commissioned in late 44 and formed the core of the BPF in early 1945

the-royal-navy-audaciousclass-fleet-aircraft-carrier-hms-ark-royal-picture-id672611537


HMS Eagle (renamed from HMS Irresistible before launch) Preparing to get underway to join her sistership (HMS Audacious) and the 7 other carriers of the BPF in March 1945

the-royal-navy-audaciousclass-fleet-aircraft-carrier-hms-eagle-at-the-picture-id672611733


HMS Africa on her commissioning day 7th July 1945 - she made it to Ceylon the day before the Japanese Surrendered

1460632851387


HMS Malta passes Southsea during her trials in late 1945

1460682714833
 
Here is some Pictures that might prove useful for any ATL (I've used a broad brush for artistic License - the first is Ark Royal being launched and the other 3 are HMS Eagle)

HMS Audacious Launched in late 1943 - she was fitted out and commissioned in late 44 and formed the core of the BPF in early 1945

the-royal-navy-audaciousclass-fleet-aircraft-carrier-hms-ark-royal-picture-id672611537


HMS Eagle (renamed from HMS Irresistible before launch) Preparing to get underway to join her sistership (HMS Audacious) and the 7 other carriers of the BPF in March 1945

the-royal-navy-audaciousclass-fleet-aircraft-carrier-hms-eagle-at-the-picture-id672611733


HMS Africa on her commissioning day 7th July 1945 - she made it to Ceylon the day before the Japanese Surrendered

1460632851387


HMS Malta passes Southsea during her trials in late 1945

1460682714833

I will have to get writing. Thanks Cryhavoc101
 
What POD would make the 4 Audacious class to be built before WW2?
AFAIK the Admiralty:
  1. Worked out the number of aircraft the fleet required
  2. Then it decided what the optimum size of aircraft carriers was. IOTL it was a 23,000 ton ship carrying 36 aircraft.
  3. Then it divided 1 by the aircraft capacity of 2 which produced the number of aircraft carriers required.
So you've got to get the Admiralty to decide that an armoured carrier carrying 72 aircraft is the best option producing a requirement for 5 Audacious class to be ordered at the rate of one per year from 1936-37 instead of 10 Illustrious class to be ordered at the rate of 2 per year from 1936-37.

And you have to change the 1935 London Naval Treaty. That might be feasible as it was the British who had the aircraft carrier limit of 27,000 tons in the WNT and 1st LNT reduced to 23,000 tons in the 2nd LNT.

Also 4 Audacious class might be cheaper to build and operate than 8 Illustrious class, which will appeal to HM Treasury.
 
You need the admiralty to realise that big strikes are necessary and that you need a constant cap bigger than 3 planes.

It's unlikely you can do this without a war to gain lessons from.
 
OK. Something very like the Audacious by 1940.

Clearly, as has been pointed out, there needs to be a good reason. And the lessons that have to be learned have to happen. This requires an earlier PoD.

----
PoD Franz Ferdinand's driver doesn't get lost.
No WWI
Britain, and the rest of Europe, isn't exhausted and bankrupted by the war, not to mention all those lives not lost.
However, there are several small colonial wars, where the concept of aircraft carriers arises, and is found to be useful.
A semi-major war with second rank power (Japan? Italy?) exposes the limits of the original designs (i.e. many of the lessons that OTL led to Audacious).
Meanwhile, the better economic situation and people not lost in WWI mean that science and tech advances faster. In particular, jet engines are invented earlier, and while not useful in their initial form, are seen to have great promise.
Thus all new carriers to be built need to be large enough to handle jets, and to have room for cats and traps (even if, perhaps, they're not originally fitted).

The first carrier of this new class rolls off the ways in 1940
 
OK. Something very like the Audacious by 1940.
I think the best that can be done is that the aircraft carrier limit is maintained at 27,000 tons in the 2nd LNT instead of being reduced to 23,000 tons.

That makes it possible to build a 27,000 ton version of the OTL Implacable class. That is the extra 4,000 tons is used to have two full-length hangars instead of one full length and one half-length hangar AND to increase the height of the hangars from 14 feet to 16 feet.
 
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I think the best that can be done is that the aircraft carrier limit is maintained at 27,000 tons in the 2nd LNT instead of being reduced to 23,000 tons.

That makes it possible to build a 27,000 ton version of the OTL Implacable class being built. That is the extra 4,000 tons is used to have two full-length hangars instead of one full length and one half-length hangar AND to increase the height of the hangars from 14 feet to 16 feet.
However, a better long term investment would be to build an enlarged Illustrious with a single hangar 17ft 6in high. That would make the task of modernising them in the 1950s easier, quicker and most important of all cheaper.
 
I've got my copy of Friedman's British Carrier Aviation out and in the chapter on the Illustrious class it says that in 1935 the requirement was for 360 aircraft in the main fleet(s) to be carried aboard 5 Ark Royal class ships because they wanted to reduce the aircraft carrier quota to 110,000 tons in the agreement that would replace the 1st LNT allowing a force of five 22,000 ton ships. However, the 135,000 ton limit set by the WNT and 1st LNT would allow a sixth ship to be built to cover refits.

When it looked as if the tonnage quotas were going to be abolished the alternatives considered were:
  1. Ark Royal (72 aircraft) and the remaining 288 aircraft aboard eight 36-aircraft ships. Or
  2. Ark Royal (72 aircraft) and the remaining 288 aircraft aboard six 48-aircraft ships. Or
  3. Ark Royal (de rated to 48 aircraft) and the remaining 312 aircraft aboard seven additional 48-aircraft ships. Or
  4. Ark Royal (de rated to 48 aircraft) and the remaining 312 aircraft aboard nine 36-aircraft ships.
They settled for Option 4. This produced a total of 8 fleet carriers of which 5 were for the wartime Eastern Fleet and 3 for the wartime Western Fleet (Home and Mediterranean).

On top of that was a requirement for 5 trade protection ships and a training carrier, which was to consist of three of the new 36-aircraft ships and the Three Follies. Sketch designs for specialised trade protection ships of about 14,500 to 18,000 tons were produced. However, they were considered to be unsatisfactory and the estimated cost was £3 million, when a satisfactory Illustrious was estimated to cost £4 million.

IIRC one 23,000 ton carrier (Illustrious) and a 14,600 ton trade protection ship were ordered in the 1936-37 Estimates, but it was decided to build a second 23,000 ton ship (which became Victorious) instead of the trade protection ship.
 
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What POD would make the 4 Audacious class to be built before WW2?
A decision to repeat of Ark Royal's (and the Outrageous') full length twin hangars, along with the former's 60-72 aircraft CAG for starters.

Skip the side armour and you can get something closer to the IJN's Taihō.
 
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I think the best you are going to get is if limits on Implacable and Indefatigable are abandoned as its obvious the Treaty system is falling/has fallen apart.
Audacious class design process began with wanting improved Implacables so that's possible. So how's this, when looking to order the Implacable class it's decided that the 14 ft hanger height is just not sufficient given the aircraft currently being designed as the next generation of naval aircraft and the designers are told to enlarge the ship sufficiently that 17.5ft hangers at a minimum are included. The ships turn out looking a lot like the otl Audacious and 4 are ordered.
 
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