Flight deck
The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface from which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters and other VTOL aircraft is also referred to as the flight deck. The official U.S. Navy term for these vessels is "air-capable ships".[1]
This article is about the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. For the flight deck of an aircraft, see cockpit. For other uses, see Flight Deck (disambiguation).
Flight decks have been in use upon ships since 1910, the American pilot Eugene Ely being the first individual to take off from a warship. Initially consisting of wooden ramps built over the forecastle of capital ships, a number of battlecruisers, including the British HMS Furious and Courageous class, the American USS Lexington and Saratoga, and the Japanese Akagi and battleship Kaga, were converted to aircraft carriers during the interwar period. The first aircraft carrier to feature a full-length flight deck, akin to the configuration of the modern vessels, was the converted liner HMS Argus which entered service in 1918. The armoured flight deck was another innovation pioneered by the Royal Navy during the 1930s. Early landing arrangements relied on the low speed and landing speed of the era's aircraft, being simply "caught" by a team of deck-hands in a fairly hazardous arrangement, but these became impractical as heavier aircraft with higher landing speeds emerged; thus an arrangement of arrestor cables and tailhooks soon became the favoured approach.
During the Cold War era, numerous innovations were introduced to the flight deck. The angled flight deck, invented by Dennis Cambell of the Royal Navy, was one prominent design feature that drastically simplified aircraft recovery and deck movements, enabling landing and launching operations to be performed simultaneously rather than interchangeably; it also better handled the higher landing speeds of jet-powered aircraft. In 1952, HMS Triumph became the first aircraft carrier to trial the angled flight deck. Another advance was the ski-jump, which fitted an angled ramp on the flight deck near the end of the aircraft's takeoff run; the change greatly reduced the distance required and became particularly useful for operating STOVL aircraft. Furthermore, various unsuccessful concepts to replace or complement the conventional flight deck have emerged over the years, from the flexible flight deck to the submarine aircraft carrier and flying boat fighter aircraft.
Alternatives[edit]
During the Cold War era, multiple unorthodox alternatives to the conventional flight deck were proposed and, in some cases, experimented with.
The Shipborne Containerised Air-defence System (SCADS) was a proposed modular kit to convert a RO-RO or container ship into aviation vessels, with one scheme allowing a container ship to be converted to a STOVL aircraft carrier in two days during an emergency and quick removal after use for storage. A prefabricated flight deck and ski jump would allow six Sea Harriers and two helicopters to be operated, with shipping containers providing hangarage for the aircraft and housing their support systems and personnel as well as defensive systems and missiles.[27] Several variants of the SCADS concept were devised for different missions roles; one implementation was tailored towards helicopter operations for example.[28] It was effectively a modern equivalent to the Second World War-era merchant aircraft carrier.
The Skyhook system was developed by British Aerospace, involving the use of a crane with a top mating mechanism hung over the sea to catch and release VTOL aircraft, such as the Harrier jump jet. The system could be installed on ships of various configurations and sizes, even those as small as frigates, enabling virtually any Royal Navy ship to deploy a handful of Harriers. It was intended for the Skyhook to enable not only the launch and recovery of such aircraft, but to enable rapid rearming and refuelling operations to be performed.[29][30] The system was marketed to various foreign customers into the 1990s, such as to enable Japan's fleet of helicopter destroyers to operate Harriers by installing the Skyhook on board.[31] Perhaps the most elaborate implementation proposed was the application of the Skyhook to large submarines, such as the Russian Typhoon class, to produce a submarine aircraft carrier.[32][33]
The Saunders-Roe SR.A/1 was a prototype jet-propelled flying boat fighter, developed during the 1940s with the intention of eliminating the monopoly held by aircraft carriers on launching jet fighters. Described as being the first water-based aircraft to harness jet propulsion in the world,[34] the SR.A/1 attracted interest from both British and American officials, with data on the project being transferred.[35] However, officials concluded that the concept had been rendered obsolete in comparison to increasingly capable land-based fighters, together with the inability to resolve engine difficulties, compelling a termination of work. During June 1951, the SR.A/1 prototype (TG263) flew for the last time.[36][37]
During the early 1950s, Saunders-Roe worked on a new fighter design, designated Project P.121, that featured skis — aircraft publication Flight referred to it as the "Saunders-Roe Hydroski" — with the aim of bringing its performance closer to that of land-based aircraft. By adopting hydroskis and dispensing with the hull approach of the SR.A/1, no concessions to hydrodynamic requirements were imposed upon the fuselage.[38][34] On 29 January 1955, the company decided not to proceed with the construction of a prototype, the proposal having not attracted any official support.[39][34]
The Convair F2Y Sea Dart was a supersonic seaplane jet fighter that had skis rather than wheels. In the late 1940s, the United States Navy feared that supersonic aircraft would stall at low speeds required for a carrier arresting gear, and therefore would not be able to land on a conventional aircraft carrier. The Sea Dart would land on (smooth) water; then be lowered and raised from the sea via crane. The Navy also considered combining the Sea Dart with the unorthodox approach of a submarine aircraft carrier that could carry up to three such aircraft inside purpose-built pressure chambers. They would have been raised by a portside elevator aft of the sail and either take off on their own from a smooth sea or be catapult launched from the aft in a higher sea.[40] During the test flight phase, the hydro-skis generated violent vibrations during takeoff and landing, while a fatal crash caused by structural failure also marred the programme; the Navy opted to cancel all production aircraft.[41]
The United States Navy held considerable interest in the submarine aircraft carrier concept during the late 1940s. A study performed in 1946 envisioned very large submarines, ranging from 600 ft (180 m) to 750 ft (230 m) in length, to carry two XA2J Super Savage bombers for the strategic nuclear strike mission, or alternatively four F2H Banshee fighters. Another proposal would have involved the conversion of redundant Second World War-era fleet submarines to enable carriage and launch of a seaplane model of the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft, which would have been equipped with hydro-skis for takeoff similar to those of the Sea Dart.[42]
