Furious, along with her half-sister ships Courageous and Glorious, was laid down as a large light cruiser mounting 2 18-inch guns on a shallow draught for gunfire support of amphibious operations in the Baltic - the epitomy of 1st Sea Lord Fisher's madness and fast, big gun, unarmoured 'battlecruisers', or 'large light cruisers.' Although the original ships were vey handsome, and powerfully armed for their size ( they were very narrow and shallow vessels ), they were so lightly built that firing a slavo whilst under fire would have shooken them apart!
The several guises of Furious represented the transitional stages between what might have been termed "air capable" ships and true aircraft carriers.
Originally designed like her sisters with twin 15" turrets, this was modified to gargantuan single 18" guns forward and aft ( this scheme would have shaken her into next week when fired in salvo! ), she was completed in June 1917 with a sloping 228ft flying-off deck in place of the forward turret; 5 months later the after turret was replaced by a 284ft landing deck. Finally, from June 1922 to August 1925 she was fully converted to a "flush-deck" carrier. The "full-length" 576ft flight deck actually had a useful length of only 530ft between round-downs, but in 1943 this was increased to 596ft by extending the forward end over the forecastle.
Furious had a very active career in World War II, taking part in the Norwegian campaign, Operation "Pedestal", covering the North African landings and launching strikes against Tirpitz in a Norwegian fjord.
She spent the last year of the war as an accommodation ship, and post-war she was used as a target and trials ship - and despite being the older, less modern sister, she was the one that survived...