Editing Flight deck (section)

==Cold War innovations==

===Angled<span class="anchor" id="Angled flight deck"></span>===
[[File:Cvna1nim.gif|thumb|upright=1.3|Animated representation of a [[bolter (aviation)|missed approach]] on angled flight deck, {{sclass|Centaur|aircraft carrier|4}} showing how the offset recovery area allows for simultaneous launch and recovery operations.]]
<!--[[Image:Ark Royal R09 from top lauch Buc NAN1-71.jpg|thumb|left|Overhead view of {{HMS|Ark Royal|R09|6}} showing the angled flight deck]] shouldn't have pics on both sides of the text-->

The '''angled flight deck''' was invented by [[Royal Navy]] Captain (later Rear Admiral) [[Dennis Cambell]], as an outgrowth of design study initially begun in the winter of 1944–1945. A committee of senior Royal Navy officers decided that the future of naval aviation was in jets, whose higher speeds required that the carriers be modified to suit their needs.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Dictionary of Aviation |first=David W. |last=Wragg |isbn=0-85045-163-9 |publisher=Frederick Fell, Inc. |publication-place=New York |date=1974 |edition=1st American |page=36}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.denniscambell.org.uk/4663/4690.html |title=The Angled Deck Story |work=denniscambell.org.uk |year=2012 |access-date=9 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304070012/http://www.denniscambell.org.uk/4663/4690.html |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fleetairarmoa.org/fleet-air-arm-oa-history |title=History of Fleet Air Arm Officers Association |work=FAAOA.org |year=2015 |access-date=9 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Innovation in Carrier Aviation |first1=Thomas C. |last1=Hone |first2=Norman |last2=Friedman |first3=Mark D. |last3=Mandeles |journal=Newport Paper 37 |publisher=Naval War College Press |year=2011}}; abridged findings published as {{cite journal |last1=Hone |first1=Thomas |last2=Friedman |first2=Norman |last3=Mandeles |first3=Mark |title=The Development of the Angled-Deck Aircraft Carrier—Innovation and Adaptation |journal=Naval War College Review |date=20 March 2018 |volume=64 |issue=2 |pages=63–78 |url=https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol64/iss2/5/ |id={{Gale|A255037246}} |jstor=26397200 }}</ref> 

In this type of deck—also called a "skewed deck", a "canted deck", a "waist angle deck", and the "angle"—the aft part is widened, and a separate [[runway]], dedicated to [[landing]], lies at an angle oblique to the centreline.<ref name=SPCflightdeck>{{cite web |url=http://www.navy.gov.au/history/angled-flight-deck |title=The angled flight deck |access-date=22 January 2013 |work=Sea Power Centre Australia |publisher=Royal Australian Navy}}</ref> 

The angled flight deck was designed with the higher landing speeds of jet aircraft in mind, which would have required the entire length of a centreline flight deck to stop.<ref name=SPCflightdeck/> The design also allowed concurrent launch and recovery operations, and allowed aircraft failing to connect with the [[arrestor cable]]s to abort the landing, accelerate, and relaunch (''[[Bolter (aviation)|bolter]]'') without risk to parked or launching aircraft.<ref name=SPCflightdeck/>

[[File:Cvnanim.gif|thumb|right|upright=1.3|Representation of the {{sclass|Nimitz|aircraft carrier|0}} carrier {{USS|Dwight D. Eisenhower|CVN-69|6}} illustrating how increasing the offset angle of a carrier's recovery area allows the use of two catapults during launch and recovery operations.]]
The redesign allowed for several other design and operational modifications, including the mounting of a larger island (improving both ship-handling and flight control), drastically simplified aircraft recovery and deck movement (aircraft now launched from the bow and landed on the angled flight deck, leaving a large open area amidships for arming and fueling), and damage control. Because of its utility in flight operations, the angled deck is now a defining feature of [[STOBAR]] and [[CATOBAR]] equipped aircraft carriers.

The angled flight deck was first tested in 1952 on {{HMS|Triumph|R16|6}} by painting angled deck markings onto the centerline of the flight deck for touch-and-go landings.<ref name=SPCflightdeck/> This was also tested on {{USS|Midway|CV-41|6}} the same year.<ref name="Friedman">{{cite book |last=Friedman |first=Norman |title=U.S. Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-UT7MDTeKj8C&q=carrier+flight+deck+modification&pg=PA188 |year=1983 |location=Annapolis, Maryland |publisher=Naval Institute Press |isbn=978-0-87021-739-5 |page=188}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/carriers/histories/cv41-midway/cv41-midway.html |title=USS Midway CV-41 |work=chinfo.navy.mil |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081228171944/http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/carriers/histories/cv41-midway/cv41-midway.html |archive-date=December 28, 2008 }}</ref> 

Despite the new markings, in both cases the arresting gear and barriers were still aligned with the centerline of the original deck. From September to December 1952, {{USS|Antietam|CV-36|6}} had a rudimentary [[sponson]] installed for true angled-deck tests, allowing for full arrested landings, which proved during trials to be superior.<ref name="Friedman"/> In 1953, ''Antietam'' trained with both U.S. and British naval units, proving the worth of the angled-deck concept.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.navy.mil/nan/backissues/2000s/2000/ja2000/ppp.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041102054425/http://history.navy.mil/nan/backissues/2000s/2000/ja2000/ppp.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2004-11-02 |title=Awards }}</ref> {{HMS|Centaur|R06|6}} was modified with an overhanging angled flight deck in 1954.<ref name=SPCflightdeck/> 

The U.S. Navy installed the decks as part of the [[SCB-125]] upgrade for the {{sclass|Essex|aircraft carrier|4}} and SCB-110/110A for the {{sclass|Midway|aircraft carrier|4}}. In February 1955, {{HMS|Ark Royal|R09|6}} became the first carrier to be constructed and launched with an angled deck, rather than having one retrofitted. This was followed in the same year by the [[lead ship]]s of the British [[1942 Design Light Fleet Carrier#Majestic class|''Majestic'' class]] ({{HMAS|Melbourne|R21|6}}) and the American {{sclass|Forrestal|aircraft carrier|4}} ({{USS|Forrestal|CV-59|6}}).<ref name=SPCflightdeck/>

===Ski-jump===

{{Main article|Ski-jump (aviation)}}
[[File:Sukhoi Su-33 launching from the Admiral Kuznetsov.jpg|thumb|A Russian Navy [[Sukhoi Su-33|Su-33]] taking off from the ski-jump on the deck of [[Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov|''Admiral Kuznetsov'']] in 2012.]]
A ski-jump converts part of the aircraft's forward motion to upward motion through the use of a curved ramp located at the end of the flight deck. As a result, the aircraft starts out its flight with a positive rate-of-climb. This allows heavier aircraft to take off even though the lift generated is smaller. Gravity causes the upward velocity to decline, but the aircraft continues to accelerate after leaving the flight deck. By the time the upward velocity has decayed to zero, the aircraft is going fast enough to attain stable flight.

Ski-jumps can be used to enable conventional aircraft to takeoff on [[STOBAR]] aircraft carriers. They can also enable heavier payloads for [[STOVL]] aircraft.

===Flexible===
An idea tested, but never put into service, was the flexible or inflated, air-cushioned, "rubber deck". In the early jet age it was recognised that eliminating the landing gear for carrier borne aircraft would improve the flight performance and range, since the space taken by the landing gear could be used to hold additional fuel tanks. This led to the concept of a deck that would absorb the energy of landing.<ref>{{cite patent |country=GB| number=742240 |status=patent |title=Improvements in or relating to apparatus for facilitating landing of aircraft |pubdate=| gdate=1955-12-21  |fdate=| pridate=| inventor=[[Arthur Davenport (aeronautical engineer)|Arthur Davenport]] |assign1=Westland Aircraft Ltd}}</ref> 

With the introduction of jet aircraft the risk of damaging propellers was no longer an issue, though take off would require some sort of launching cradle.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/scimitar/history.php |title=Supermarine Scimitar - History |first=Damien |last=Burke |work=Thunder & Lightnings |year=2012 |access-date=9 November 2015}}</ref> Tests were carried out with a [[de Havilland Vampire|de Havilland Sea Vampire]] flown by [[test pilot]] [[Eric Brown (pilot)|Eric "Winkle" Brown]] onto a flexible deck fitted to {{HMS|Warrior|R31|6}}.<ref name="Rubber deck flight tests">{{cite web |url=http://www.livingwarbirds.com/de-havilland-vampire.php |title=de Havilland DH.100 Vampire |publisher=livingwarbirds.com |access-date=9 November 2015}}</ref> 

The deck consisted of a rubberised sheet fully supported on multiple layers of pressurised fire hose.<ref>Farnborough and the Fleet Air Arm. Geoffrey G.J.Cooper 2008, Midland Publishing, {{ISBN|978 1 85780 306 8}}</ref>  [[Supermarine]] designed its [[Supermarine 525|Type 508]] for rubber deck landings. The flexible deck idea was found to be technically feasible but was abandoned, as the weight of carrier aircraft increased and there were always doubts about the ability of an average pilot to land in this way. The Type 508 was subsequently developed into a conventional carrier aircraft, the [[Supermarine Scimitar]].

The US Navy evaluated a shore-based flexible deck made by Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. using two modified [[Grumman F-9 Cougar#Flexible deck testing|Grumman F9F-7 Cougars]]. Three US pilots had participated in the British flexible deck trials at Farnborough and the US Navy, despite liaison with the British, partially redid the Farnborough trials, with 23 landings at Patuxent River, before cancelling the project in March 1956 for similar reasons.<ref>''U.S. Naval Air Superiority, Development Of Shoipborne Jet Fighters 1943–1962'' Tommy H. Thomason 2007, Specialty Press, {{ISBN|978-1-58007-110-9}}, pp. 190–191</ref>