Part of the answer to the type selection is that in the between the wars period the fleet aircraft when not embarked were lodged at RAF Stations and maintained/serviced by RAF Personnel. Only a small percentage of the FAA aircraft were embarked at any given time.
This led to a preference for aircraft types that mirrored the types in RAF service for availability of spares on the lodger stations.
However to say that it was not until 1941 that the need for a front line fighter aircraft was identified is incorrect.
In 1934/35 the fleet requirement O.27/34 for a single engine monoplane design was released. It responded to the perceived threat at the time to naval units at sea of capital ships and land based bombers (fighters did not have the range or weight of armament to be considered as a serious threat).
As a result the design was for a bomber destroyer fighter that could be used as a dive bomber to attack capital ships through the weaker armoured decks (waterline armour was getting thicker to protect against both sea and air torpedo attack).
In 1937 the first prototypes of the Blackburn Skua flew and shortly after entered service until 1941 when replaced.
The predominance of attack on naval units at sea by land based bombers was addressed in parallel with 0.30/35 which required a turreted bomber destroyer. The developed result being the Roc.
By the early 1940s the perceived threat had changed swinging the need for a fighter defensive aircraft without the extra role of dive bomber making adaption of current fighter designs acceptable.
So to say the FAA entered the war with biplanes is not strictly true as other specially designed monoplane fighters were in FAA service as well.
Regards
Ross
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