Today is the anniversary of the first landing of a jet aboard a carrier. Lt Cdr (later Capt) Eric Brown landed a Vampire aboard HMS
Ocean.
I have recently read his book,
Wings On My Sleeve from cover to cover (ok, not the index). In addition to discussing his WWII experiences as a fighter pilot aboard the first escort carrier (for which he got the DSC), deck landing training and service trials work, six years at Farnborough (including a lot of high speed work, early jet flying and investigating captured enemy aircraft), he discusses his post war career including two spells at the MOD. He was involved in the CVA01 design - and this is covered in detail in an appendix.
CVA01 was to have an innovative deck design, with a near parallel landing area with a greatly reduced angle. The island was also to be moved inboard so aircraft could pass on both sides so that landing aircraft could taxi out of the arrestor wires, be refuelled, rearmed, and moved to the catapults. The new design was intended to separate the landing and launching areas completely.
Now look at this
article about the American CVN21.
A NASCAR flight deck philosophy. The "island" tower on the flight deck is being redesigned, reduced, and moved. As Rear Adm. Dwyer noted: "The people who actually handle aircraft said, 'The island's in the wrong place. It makes the aircraft all jam up. Why don't you move it?'" So the island has shifted 100 feet aft, and the carrier's elevators, deck et. al. are being shifted to a racetrack-like pattern of operations, complete with "pit stop" parking et. al.
It is this system that accounts for the expected improvements in operational flights per day – a key measure of the carrier's ability to both project power and defend itself.
Sound familliar? They should have listened to Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown CBE, DSC, AFC, MA, Hon FRAeS, RN.
Now could it be said that opting for a STOVL solution partly achieves the same thing, in that with CVF the landing and take off areas will be separated, unlike with the CVS? To my mind a F35B landing on the stern of the CVF will either stay aft of the twin island and be refuelled, rearmed and moved forward to the take off areas (anyone got a picture of the deck?), be parked (possibly aft, possibly forward) or moved onto a lift for a trip to the hangar for serious maintenance etc., and we won't have lots of aircraft moving all over the deck all the time. If we get it right, this will make for a less cluttered deck and a higher sortie rate. Yes?
I bet there are software models out there somewhere.
Some have said flying is a core RAF skill, both here and elsewhere, therefore they can run the carriers. However (and yes I have seen it with my own eyes) operating aircraft from a deck involves not only the aircrew, maintainers and flight deck party, but also the bridge, the operations room team, ME watchkeepers in the SCC, in fact the entire ship is involved. The issue of FOD, for example, effects everyone from the chockheads on the flightdeck to the Buffer's party performing seamanship tasks.
Flying should not viewed in isolation. Getting the ship in the right place at the right time, with the right aircraft positioned correctly, with a suitable amount of wind over the deck, with the necessary radar coverages ..... these are all core naval skills.