1939s US Navy flight deck cruiser studies?

[michik]

Maybe somebody knows the answer:
Why did the US Navy (again) perform studies on (hybrid) flight deck cruisers at the end of 1939 (as can be seen in the Spring Styles Book 3) ?

As I understand it, the 1931 flight deck cruiser was an attempt to get more flight deck into the tonnage limit of the Washington Treaty, and - with 3x3 6" guns - would have been at least as a cruiser not completely useless.

In 1939, however, the Washington Treaty was dead and burried. The other thing is, the three known designs could hardly fulfill any cruiser job with 3 8" guns or 2x3 6" fore and aft.

D.K.Brown once wrote that a ship designers job often consists of calculating silly ideas to prove that they are silly (and to smack everyone around the with a good pile of paper who doesn't see the obvious). Could those studies possibly have been one of those cases?

Bye!
Michi