You can see here how the arresting wire–which carriers have used anyway for a long time–tends to be the thing that takes up most of the speed. The plane doesn’t slide against the runway so much as bounces a few times and stops.
There must be heat built up in the arresting wire system, of course, but no more than a traditional plane with landing gear doing the same. In fact, there is probably more energy transferred to the deck and the airplane skin than with rolling wheels, so the arresting wire system should have less kinetic energy turned into heat. All that heat is spread out more.
Also, not all of the energy is transferred as heat, either. Some of the momentum will make the boat go a little faster.
The only reason? So they had a solution for that massive amount of friction too?
Take a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zZGi0Y1EPmo
You can see here how the arresting wire–which carriers have used anyway for a long time–tends to be the thing that takes up most of the speed. The plane doesn’t slide against the runway so much as bounces a few times and stops.
There must be heat built up in the arresting wire system, of course, but no more than a traditional plane with landing gear doing the same. In fact, there is probably more energy transferred to the deck and the airplane skin than with rolling wheels, so the arresting wire system should have less kinetic energy turned into heat. All that heat is spread out more.
Also, not all of the energy is transferred as heat, either. Some of the momentum will make the boat go a little faster.
Soapy water! And a filled kiddie pool at the end of the runway to stop.