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I can’t tell. Does that ship have a catapult system? A curved catapult system would seem tricky to engineer. If not, it seems they would need to whole deck to launch and thereby, the whole deck to recover. No staging of planes.

I want to know how it works (more than planes take off, planes land....).

The aircraft carrier has no catapults. The upward curved foredeck is called a ski-jump. The aircraft accelerate up the ramp and achieve a ballistic trajectory and sufficient height for their wings to begin providing lift prior to crashing into the sea. On return, the aircraft land on the angled portion of the flight deck using a conventional arresting gear system.

This ski-jump system has been used for decades on British, Spanish, Thai, etc. “Harrier Carriers.” Its appeal lies in engineering simplicity and low cost - basically it has no moving parts - when compared to the very complex conventional steam catapult systems used in U.S, French, and, until they scrapped them, British aircraft carriers.

The Soviets took the concept a step farther by adapting it to full-size Conventional Take Off and Landing (CTOL) aircraft like the Su-33 (navalized version of the Su-27), MiG-29K (navalized version of the MiG-29 (India is acquiring this aircraft along with the carrier) and a navalized version of the Su-25. These aircraft have the very significant thrust-to-weight ratios needed to acheive the needed acceleration. My understanding is that even then their useful military load is somewhat reduced by the lower speed the aircraft achives flight at (120-140 mph) when compared to their payloads when flying from land bases with their longer runways.

The Russians have only one aircraft carrier, the RFS Kuznetsov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_aircraft_carrier_Admiral_Kuznetsov), which is puny in size when compared to U.S fleet aircraft carriers. The larger Ulyanov class was cancelled immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union but the Chinese have announced plans to build two carriers based on the design in the future (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_aircraft_carrier_Ulyanovsk).