page_title: Flight deck
section_title: Ski-jump
hierarchical_section_title: Flight deck / Cold War innovations / Ski-jump
caption_attribution_description: A Royal Navy BAe Sea Harrier FRS.1 aircraft from 800 Naval Air Squadron taking off from the flight deck of the British light aircraft carrier HMS Invincible (R05) during the NATO Southern Region exercise "Dragon Hammer '90".
context_page_description: 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".
  Flight decks have been in use upon ships since 1910, the American pilot Eugene Ely being the first individual to takeoff 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. The armoured flight deck was another innovation pioneered by the Royal Navy during the 1930s.
context_section_description: 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.
caption: A Royal Navy Sea Harrier taking off from the ski-jump on the deck of HMS Invincible in May 1990.
exif: {}