No, the iPad does not support Flash and likely never will. However, more and more sites are moving towards the HTML5 spec to replace flash when possible.
Im afraid not! Any website containing flash is only instructed to give the option to download a player when it doesnt detect one in your OS (operating system) wether its Firefox, Safari or Explorer.
It recognizes Mobile Safari as any browser, but Apple has decided to leave out the ability to play flash on its mobile platform. (A long story which I will not go into here!)
Adobe (who creates developmentplatforms for flash) is however giving developers the option to export their flash creations to a format which will play on the iphone/ipad and the touch in their upcoming Creative Suite 5!