USS Midway CV-41
The CVB-41 class vessels (then unnamed) were originally conceived in 1940 as a design study to determine the effect of including an armored flight deck on a carrier the size of the Essex class. The resulting calculations showed that the effect would be a reduction of air group size—the resulting ship would have an air group of 64,[2] compared to 72[3][4] for the standard Essex class fleet carriers. The design was also heavily influenced by the wartime experience of the Royal Navy's armored carriers:
