CC,
The rubberised deck idea was meant to help reduce the weight of jet aircraft (to help with endurance) by removing everything to do with landing gear. A carrier was give a rubber deck, tested using Vampires (wheels up landing rather than after having undercart removed) and all went well. Then someone pointed out that the aircraft could only land on rubber decks, which would mean that RN Air Stations would have to have runways made out of the stuff, which also meant that carrier aircraft wouldn't be able to divert to other airfields without damage resulting from the landing, which meant...
The Admiralty looked at the cost, went, 'Ah. Er. Oh. Um....' and promptly abandoned the idea. Fortunately, as well as this crackpot scheme, the RN also oversaw some more useful thoughts about steam catapults, mirror landing systems, angled decks, etc, etc.
[Edited to add:
ZELL pic
here
ZELL F-104 Page (with movie clip link - don't know if it works)
here