<P> Ski - jumps can be used to enable conventional aircraft to takeoff on STOBAR aircraft carriers . They can also enable heavier payloads for STOVL aircraft . </P> <P> 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 . 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 . Tests were carried out with a de Havilland Sea Vampire flown by test pilot Eric "Winkle" Brown onto a flexible deck fitted to HMS Warrior . The deck consisted of a rubberised - sheet fully supported on multiple layers of pressurised fire hose . Supermarine designed its 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 . </P> <P> The US Navy evaluated a shore - based flexible deck made by Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. using two modified 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 . </P> <P> Unusual alternatives to flight decks have been proposed for use in the jet age: </P>

How long is the runway on a aircraft carrier