I don't know if a VTOL whilst fully fuelled / armed is impossible, but the Royal Navy's last generation of carriers (i.e. the ones that carried Sea Harriers) had what was known as a 'ski ramp' at the bow and without checking any sources / reference material I'm fairly certain that standard procedure was always to do a short take off using the ski ramp.
As DigTw0Grav3s has already said I don't think there was any issue doing a vertical landing on return though.
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Author of the unofficial and strictly non canon Alternative Survivor’s Guide to the United Kingdom
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