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It was in this form that the Eagle was finally completed, after a very extensive series of arresting gear trials that delayed completion but provided valuable data. At the end of World War I the Royal Navy accepted that the Furious, in its existing state, was effectively useless as a carrier. A major reconstruction would be necessary to fit it for service. This was an attractive option since its cost would be about one-third the cost of constructing a new carrier from the keel up. In July 1920 design work began.

Ultimately, its loss owed more to less-than-optimal damage control practices, which were corrected rapidly. The final British carriers designed before World War II represented a major departure from earlier types. They were a response to two clear problems: protecting the carrier’s greatest vulnerability— the hangar and its explosive and inflammable contents—against aerial attack, and preserving the reconnaissance and strike aircraft vital to its mission against the same attack threat. During preparation of various design studies for the new class, planners had to wrestle with the outcome of many fleet exercises demonstrating that defending fighters could never intercept all incoming aircraft in time to prevent an attack.

The new aircraft carrier, renamed the Langley, was a very simple conversion that clearly was intended to be no more than experimental and essentially added little more than a flight deck, aircraft handling gantry crane, and elevator on top of the collier’s original structure, placed stowage for aircraft, fuel, munitions, and spares in the former coal holds, and modified arrangements for smoke disposal. There was no hanger; aircraft were stowed disassembled in the holds, moved to the lowered elevator platform for assembly, and raised to the flight deck.