Conventional Take-Off and Landing
Conventional Take-Off and Landing ( CTOL ; German conventional take-off and landing ) is the conventional take-off and landing of aircraft by accelerating until they reach take-off speed or coasting on a runway . This is the typical mode of operation of passenger aircraft.
Seaplanes use the water surface instead of a runway.
Problems and alternatives
The limits of this concept lie in the availability of sufficiently long and appropriately paved runways. The only remedy is to design aircraft with improved take-off and landing properties based on the STOL or VTOL principle (short take-off and landing or vertical take-off and landing) or mixed forms ( e.g. STOVL ) thereof.
CTOL on aircraft carriers
For the special conditions of use on aircraft carriers , aircraft types constructed according to the CTOL principle require appropriate modifications and generally have to adhere to strict specifications regarding take-off weight and minimum speed. Since there is usually no runway of the required length available, the aircraft are accelerated to the required take-off speed with a catapult over a short distance, such as on carriers of the Nimitz class , or take off from a ski jump (see Admiral Kuznetsov ). On the runway , which is also very short , the aircraft are braked abruptly with the help of safety ropes and brought to a stop at almost 50 meters within around two seconds.
Aircraft carriers used in this way have special equipment consisting of launch catapults or ramps and a landing device. The designation for this operating mode is CATOBAR ( Catapult Assisted Take Off But Arrested Recovery ), when a catapult is used for acceleration and STOBAR ( Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery ), when the aircraft descends under its own power from a ski jump ( ski jump ) start.