Here's a good video of an Indian Navy MiG-29K naval fighter taking off from INS Vikramaditya, late in the evening. The plumes of flame from the aircraft's afterburners stand out to good effect.
I note that the plane takes off without heavy underwing gas tanks or ordnance. I wonder what its weight limitations are when using the ski-jump, as opposed to a runway or catapult takeoff?
Peter
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Makes me wonder if the aircraft that use those ski-ramp setups have a landing gear hydraulic valve system mod to lock it for deck clearance of underwing stores.
That whole ramp idea seems more like a gimmick to me. I could see a catapult feeding into it, to give it a little more time/clearance to get to flying speed, but unless the aircraft has enormous power reserves to drag itself upwards while getting cleaned up, I suspect that it actually just replicates the takeoff performance of the nose high stance of a taildragger. Maybe they should have just copied the nose gear of Heinemann's Hotrod, instead.
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