t43562: ......a huge vehicle which needs a 5.5km long, reinforced runway to take off and I'm wondering if e.g. a jump of some kind might make that runway 1/5 less expensive to build.....
Also remember that aircraft needs a place to land, so you still need a longish runway. And you usually want to take off into the wind, so you would need multiple ski jumps. And you dont want a ski jump in the middle of your landing run
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So good application for non-catapult equipped aircraft carriers, and perhaps a one off very heavy aircraft like a single stage to orbit arcraft, but limited utilty for say an airliner.