Retired Lt Cdr Doug Taylor of the Royal Navy has passed away recently. Taylor is credited as comping up with the idea of the Ski Jump for assisting jets to take off from aircraft carriers.
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PH3 (AC) Stephen L. Batiz, USN [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Taylor saw for himself the vulnerability of the steam catapult to break down under intense heat during his deployment to South East Asia aboard HMS Victorious. He proposed the Ski Jump concept in his thesis “The Runway in The Sky” in 1973.