CTOL

Conventional Take- Off and Landing ( CTOL ) is the conventional takeoff and landing of aircraft by accelerating manner until reaching the starting speed or coasting on a runway. This is the typical mode of passenger aircraft. Seaplanes use instead of a start and runway surface of the water.

Problems and alternatives

The limitations of this approach lie in the availability of sufficiently long and fixed according runways. The only remedy is the design of aircraft with improved takeoff and landing characteristics after STOL or VTOL Principle ( short takeoff and landing or vertical launch and landing ) or mixed forms ( for example STOVL) variant of it.

CTOL aircraft carriers

For the special conditions of use on aircraft carriers need after the CTOL principle designed aircraft types corresponding conversions and generally must comply with strict requirements regarding take-off weight and minimum speed. As a rule, no runway is in the required length available, the aircraft with a catapult over a short distance are accelerated to the required start-up speed, such as on carriers of the Nimitz class, or boot from a ski jump (see Admiral Kuznetsov ). On the also very short runway, the aircraft with the help of fishing ropes are abruptly braked and brought to a stop within about two seconds to just under 50 meters.

Such aircraft carriers used have a special equipment which consists of starting catapults, or down ramp and a landing device. The term for this mode is CATOBAR ( Catapult Assisted Take Off But Arrested Recovery ) when a catapult is used to accelerate and STOBAR (Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery ) when the aircraft under its own power from a ski jump (ski -jump ). start