Flight deck

The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface from which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters and other VTOL aircraft is also referred to as the flight deck. The official U.S. Navy term for these vessels is "air-capable ships".

Evolution

Early flight decks

The first flight decks were inclined wooden ramps built over the forecastle of naval warships. Eugene Ely made the first fixed-wing aircraft take-off from a warship from USS Birmingham on 14 November 1910. Two months later, on 18 January 1911, Ely landed his Curtiss pusher plane on a platform on Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay using the first tailhook system, designed and built by circus performer and aviator Hugh Robinson. Ely told a reporter: "It was easy enough. I think the trick could be successfully turned nine times out of ten." On 9 May 1912, Commander Charles Samson became the first man to take off from a ship which was underway when he flew his Short S.27 off of HMS Hibernia, which was steaming at 10.5 kn (12.1 mph; 19.4 km/h). Because the take-off speed of early aircraft was so low, it was possible for an aircraft to make a very short take off when the launching ship was steaming into the wind. Later, removable "flying-off platforms" appeared on the gun turrets of battleships and battlecruisers starting with HMS Repulse, allowing aircraft to be flown off for scouting purposes, although there was no chance of recovery.

Flight Deck (Canada's Wonderland)

Flight Deck is a steel inverted roller coaster located at Canada's Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. It originally opened in 1995 under the name Top Gun until it was renamed in 2008 to Flight Deck, after Paramount Parks sold Wonderland to Cedar Fair which necessitated the gradual removal of all Paramount names and trademarks from the theme park.

The roller coaster is based on the 1986 film Top Gun (produced by Paramount Pictures, a sister company of Paramount Parks), and the ride is meant to simulate the feeling of riding in an F-14 fighter jet. The ride is themed heavily after the movie with various props alongside the line-up including models of the F-14 aircraft, hangars, radar installations, army trucks, and informational posters about the making of the movie. Since its early inception, the ride has been known as the flagship ride in the park, finally losing that distinction to Behemoth in 2008.

When Vekoma announced the Vekoma SLC 689m Standard, Paramount had cancelled their plans with Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) to make an inverted coaster to go on the land where Behemoth currently stands on due to Cedar Point's contract on having no B&M inverted coaster in the 200 mile radius of a Cedar Fair park. Canada's Wonderland clocked to 198 miles from Cedar Point, so the custom invert was cancelled and the SLC was put in place. The ride was built where "Zumba Flume" (a water log ride) was once located. The "Top Gun" movie theme was a shift in the design of the park. The ride no longer was themed to match the "land" in which it was situated. The ride has had many breakdowns which include seats and chain lift failure. There have been a couple of accounts where the train has been stuck on the lift hill with people on the ride.

The Bat (Kings Island; opened 1993)

The Bat, formerly called Flight Deck and Top Gun, is a suspended roller coaster at Kings Island in Mason, Ohio. Built by Arrow Dynamics, the ride was known as Top Gun when it opened in 1993. It is the park's second suspended coaster following an earlier prototype from Arrow Development — also called The Bat – that operated at Kings Island from 1981 to 1983. The layout is designed to give riders the illusion they are narrowly missing track supports and other elements while swinging through sharp turns.

History

The 660-short-ton (600 t) structure was planned years in advance before Paramount Communications purchased the park in 1992. However, Paramount took over operations in time to determine the ride's theme which was based on the Paramount Pictures film Top Gun. They hired John DeCuir Jr., a production designer that worked on the film, to design the ride's loading platform, so that it would resemble the deck of an aircraft carrier. Subsequently, the roller coaster was named Top Gun when it opened in 1993. The ride's queue, where guests wait in line, featured music from the motion picture as well. An aircraft carrier control room exhibit was also a feature that guests would pass through on their way to the loading platform above. Access to the control room exhibit was blocked off from the line queue several years later, some time before Cedar Fair purchased the park in 2006.