[ndespres]

This is addressed in the article:

"We designed and built a pneumatic rail launcher so that the plane does not have to take off under its own power."

In the spirit of everything old being new again, the Wright Brothers' original 1908 flyer also used a catapult to launch the planes. https://simanaitissays.com/2012/08/13/vintage-aero-wilber-wo...

[larkeith]

Note that this quote was in reference to the autonomous drone they produce, not the manned trainer that was the subject of the article. I would presume there are more challenges in building a launch assist catapult for a crewed flight.