This isn't exactly breaking news to anyone who has paid attention to the V-22 Osprey program in recent years, but the Navy has found that when a jet engine dumps its exahust straight down onto the deck of an aircraft carrier or one its amphibious assault ships the heat does bad things to the steel.
Now, with the Marines MV-22 beginning to see service aboard ships and the looming entry into service a few years from now of the F-35B short-takeoff-vertical landing variant, the Navy is hoping somebody out there can find a solution that will keep these planes from wrecking its flight decks.
Both the Office of Naval Research and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have put out bulletins calling for ideas from industry and researchers.
Here's the ONR's summary of the problem:
Navy studies have indicated that repeated deck buckling will cause deck failure at approximately 40 percent of planned ship life. With the upcoming deployment of he F-35B STOVL Joint Strike Fighter, it is anticipated that the engine exhaust plumes will have a severe thermo-mechanical impact on the non-skid surface and flight deck structure of ships. ... During STOVL operations of these aircraft, engine exhaust is angled or positioned downward, directing the hot exhaust onto the horizontal deck surface, thereby subjecting that surface to higher than normal temperatures. For the MV-22 the localized region of heating, surrounded by regions of cooler deck plate and mechanical constraints of the deck structure (longitudinal and transverse stiffening beams are located under the deck plate) has lead to the observation of thermally induced buckling which appears after approximately 10 minutes of aircraft operation (while the aircraft is sitting on the deck turning rotors). Currently there are no available solutions.
And DARPA's hoped for technological solution:
Currently, there are no available strategies to mitigate deck buckling and thermal-mechanical deck failure other than heavy structural modifications. The goal of this effort is to exploit thermal management technologies that incorporate a thermally and functionally stable non-skid surface which meets Navy requirements for application, safety, and performance. Eligible technologies should consist of an integrated Thermal Management System (TMS) that mitigates the thermo-mechanical structural impact of the F-35B engine exhaust plumes.
See commentary at Aviation Week's Ares blog and at Defense Springboard.

