isn’t better for planes on carriers to start at the top of the ramp and get more speed down for takeoff instead of climbing the ramp?
In: 5
The ramps at the end of small carriers are not very high compared to the speeds that the airplanes go at. The problem they are there to solve is that the ships are too short for the airplanes to get up to enough speed to fly. If there were no ramp and the aircraft would just launch straight ahead off the deck of the ship they would not get enough speed to fly before hitting the water. The ramp is there to make sure the airplane is at least going up for a bit so they have more time to gain speed. You could argue that the airplane might have a tiny bit more speed if they were winched to the top of the ramp and took off in the reverse direction, but that would still not be enough speed to take off before they hit the water.
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