Takeoff and landing in the context of "Carrier-based"

A navalised aircraft (or navalized aircraft) is an aircraft that is designed for naval usage. A navalised aircraft specifically designed to take off and land from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier is called a carrier-based aircraft.

Navalised aircraft include both fixed-wing (including seaplanes, biplanes, monoplanes and flying wings, both propeller- and jet-propelled) and rotary-wing aircraft (helicopters, tiltrotors and, in some cases, multicopters). In many cases, the aircraft is simply a modified variant of a land-based model. They are different to land-based aircraft in that they are designed to tolerate greater corrosion due to humidity and salt weathering around marine environments, handle increased mechanical stress due to harsher air conditions such as strong sea breezes and extreme weathers, and often need to operate on moving vessels at sea, which typically dictates more complex flight control to deal with unsteady sea state and also the ability to perform vertical/short takeoff and landing as there are very limited runway spaces available (or none at all) on deck.

A carrier-based aircraft (also known as carrier-capable aircraft, carrier-borne aircraft, carrier aircraft or aeronaval aircraft) is a navalised aircraft designed for seaborne flight operations from aircraft carriers. The term is generally applied only to shipborne fixed-wing aircraft that require a runway of some sort for takeoff and landing, as VTOL aircraft such as helicopters are inherently capable of adapting to flight operations from a wide variety of ships (not just aircraft carriers) as long as the served vessel is equipped with helipads or a sufficiently spacious deck that can provide a reliable landing area, which include helicopter carriers, amphibious assault ships, aviation-capable surface combatants (cruisers, destroyers, frigates and some corvettes), container ships and even cruiseliners.

Carrier-based aircraft are designed for many purposes including aerial combat, surface attack, anti-submarine warfare (ASW), search and rescue (SAR), carrier onboard delivery (COD), weather observation, reconnaissance and airborne early warning and control (AEW&C). Such aircraft must be able to take off from the short distance available on the carrier's flight deck and be sturdy enough to withstand the abrupt forces exerted by on a pitching deck due to sea waves. Some modern carrier aircraft are designed for catapult-assisted takeoffs and thus also need to be constructed more robust airframes and landing gears that can handle sudden forward accelerations. Arrestor hook is mandatory feature for those designed for CATOBAR or STOBAR landing, while thrust vectoring or tiltrotor nacelles are commonly seen in those capable of V/STOL operations. In addition, their wings are generally larger (thus can generate more lift) than the land-launched counterparts, and are typically able to fold up or swing back for taxiing, pushback and parking in tight quarters.

A vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) aircraft is an airplane able to take off or land vertically or on short runways. Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft are a subset of V/STOL craft that do not require runways at all. Generally, a V/STOL aircraft needs to be able to hover. Helicopters are not considered under the V/STOL classification as the classification is only used for aeroplanes, aircraft that achieve lift in forward flight by planing the air, thereby achieving speed and fuel efficiency that is typically greater than the capability of helicopters.

The main advantage of V/STOL aircraft is closer basing to the enemy, which reduces response time and tanker support requirements. In the case of the Falklands War, it also permitted high-performance fighter air cover and ground attack without a large aircraft carrier equipped with aircraft catapult. V/STOL was developed to allow fast jets to be operated from clearings in forests, from very short runways, and from small aircraft carriers that would previously only have been able to carry helicopters.

A short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft is a fixed-wing aircraft that can take off and land on runways that are much shorter than the typical ones needed for conventional take-off and landing. STOL-capable aircraft are usually light aircraft (mostly propeller-driven utility aircraft, sporters or motor gliders) with a high lift-to-drag ratio and typically also a high aspect ratio, allowing them to achieve minimum takeoff speed (i.e. liftoff speed or V_LOF) much more quickly and thus requiring a shorter accelerating run before taking off (takeoff roll); and perform landing at a lower minimum steady flight speed (V_S0) and thus also a shorter decelerating run (rollout).

Gyrocopters, despite being rotary-wing aircraft, need a forward motion to drive air flow past autorotating rotor blades to generate lift and thus still mandate runways (albeit a very short one) for takeoff and landing. They are therefore also considered STOL aircraft, as they cannot perform vertical takeoff and landing like helicopters.

Vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) is a form of takeoff and landing for rockets. Multiple VTVL craft have flown. A notable VTVL vehicle was the Apollo Lunar Module which delivered the first humans to the Moon. Building on the decades of development, SpaceX utilised the VTVL concept for its flagship Falcon 9 first stage, which has delivered over four hundred successful powered landings so far.

VTVL technologies were first seriously developed for the Apollo program. By the '90s, development on large reliable restartable rocket engines made it possible to use the already matured technology for rocket stages. The first pioneer was the McDonnell Douglas DC-X demonstrator. After the success of the DC-X prototype, the concept was developed substantially with small rockets after 2000, in part due to incentive prize competitions like the Lunar Lander Challenge.

A conventional take-off and landing (CTOL), also known as horizontal take-off and landing (HTOL), is the usual process whereby fixed-wing aircraft perform takeoff and landing. As fixed-wing aircraft must have a forward motion to have relative air flow over the airfoils (wings) in order to generate lift, they require a period of ground acceleration before takeoff and conversely also a period of safe, gradual ground deceleration after landing, both translating to the necessity of sufficient distance for linear ground movement, which conventionally involve the use of dedicated runways.

During takeoff, the aircraft will first taxi or be tugged into a launch position at one end of the runway, where a final preflight check known as the run-up is completed. When cleared to proceed, the aircraft engines power up and the aircraft, propelled by the engines' thrust, begins accelerating down the runway in a takeoff roll with its landing gear wheels still contacting the ground. The takeoff roll ends when sufficient speed has been reached for the wings to generate more lift than the combined weight of the aircraft and its payloads, at which point the pilot manipulates the flight controls to pitch up the aircraft and raise the angle of attack of the wings, which further increases their lift coefficient and causes the aircraft to finally break contact with the ground (i.e. the liftoff) and transition into actual flight.