The aircraft carrier Kennedy is sailing closer to retirement: The ship is no longer safe for flying. Navy on Friday officials released information that the ship is restricted from conducting carrier flight operations, due to major corrosion in the points where the arresting gear mounts into the ship.

“Naval Sea Systems Command is issuing a message restricting Kennedy from landing fixed-wing aircraft,” said Lt. Trey Brown, Navy spokesman at the Pentagon. “This restriction is the result of a decertifying the arresting gear aboard Kennedy due to structural degradation of the arresting gear sheave foundations.”

Corroded arresting gear mounts are not the Kennedy’s only problem.

Two of the four catapults are on waivers — which allow use under certain conditions — that expire in June, and four of its eight boilers are on waivers that expire in September; the boiler waivers can’t be renewed.

A Navy official said to make Kennedy deployable and fully manned would require $2.1 billion and drydock time, but a drydock is not available until 2008.