Some questions about the 27,000 ton Yorktown Class design.

Wonder what would happen to any aircraft on deck when the eight inch guns fired

If you need to fire the 8" guns, then the fate of aircraft on deck is not all that important. I'm not sure if the USA planned to use deck park when the design was finalized, but if no deck park, then no problem. Speaking of which, Lexington and Saratoga were the first American carriers worthy of the name. Langley was a worthwhile experiment, but very limited. Doctrine and technology was still new, and adding guns later would not be easy.

If the planes were parked at one end or the other, I wouldn't anticipate much blast damage. Likewise, if the guns were firing on the broadside away from the flight deck, probably not much.

As said above, doctrine was going to crawl all over the place.
 
A fellow named William Moffett also had a hand in, as chief of BuAer. In 1923, the US Navy (BuAer) had a British company whip up a little cantilever monoplane for testing as a ship-board naval fighter. That's foresight.
 
8" guns on a carrier simply doesn't make any sense. God knows what the Americans were thinking.
If you are fighting something that needs an 8" gun, you're fighting a cruiser, which is more manouverable and has armour. One of two hits on a carrier and its useless as a carrier, even if you don't set off the avgas.

If you are attacked by destroyers, your best bet is dual purpose lighter guns.

I find the argument about being caught in bad weather fallacious - the British, who were FAR more likely to suffer such an occurence, didn't consider big guns on a carrier to be of any use. In weather that bad, your best chance is speed and get away - without radar, that gives a much better chance of survival.
 
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