Many WWII carriers did not have catapults, and the planes operated just fine
without them. What makes you think a catapult is necessary now?


In the Prowler flight simulator we used to do a deck run after a trap. We would
just taxi back to the round down and spin around and cob the power. It was
really not to difficult I would think that any moderen Jet aircraft F-14,
F/a-18, EA-6B, S-3, E-2 could do a deck run the full length of the deck and get
airborne at max landing weight. If you cranked up the wind you might make it at
max T/O weight as well but I'm not sure about that.
Sparky