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I read something the other day that said for F-35s to take off from roads they have to be swept perfectly clean, otherwise junk (gravel, twigs etc) gets sucked into their air vents.

The Russian equivalent jets like the MIG-29, by contrast, have flaps that can close the intakes on take off and landing.

Did the road have to be cleaned up before this F35 could take off?

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I think some fighter jets have the intakes on the upper side of the fuselage to enable this. Closing intake by some flaps seems like a bad idea, given that on take off you'd probably want to have all the power you can get.

Apparently it has "spare" intakes on top of the wings.

https://www.quora.com/How-is-the-Mikoyan-MiG-29-able-to-take...

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