Abstract: An aircraft take-off ramp, for causing an aircraft with a compressible, shock absorbing and damping landing gear to be so urged from a horizontal path that it follows an initially ballistic trajectory on leaving the ramp, has its profile derived from a notional generally circular arc. The notional arc has its radius selected so that the center of gravity of the aircraft, if its landing gear was incompressible, would follow a desired locus. The derived profile is so modified from the notional arc that during traverse of the ramp the compressible landing gear is compressed so that the center of gravity of the aircraft follows the desired locus.

Abstract: An aircraft take-off runway, especially a ship's flight desk, is provided with a terminal ramp that curves upward to launch the aircraft in a semi-ballistic trajectory. The ramp is so configured as to have a varying contour or profile, in longitudinal section, at different regions across it, such that the path up the ramp of wheels on the center line of the aircraft is different from the path of wheels off the center line, e.g. outrigger wheels, whereby a desired pitching moment is imparted to the aircraft at launch.