[state_less]

I agree getting up over the weather would be a good thing. And as long as we're dreaming, may as well dream big. Maybe we can do something like they did with jato bottles on the c-130 at takeoff.

Attach some batteries with wings to the aircraft that you release after you get up to altitude. These days you can put an autopilot on the batteries and fly them back to the airport for recharging. You'd save some weight once at altitude and could get a 'free' lift up to altitude. Sort of like how a sailplane can get a tow. Maybe you could take them up to 30-40k ft at a good speed and let them trade some height for speed along their path to the destination.

Clearly there is a cost for the added complexity, but it might be worth it given the cheap computation and improving autopilot software.

[pasabagi]

That sounds absolutely terrifying. Iirc, the first rule of building rockets is, always assume it will explode - not even starting on all the stress it would put on the frame.

[NickNameNick]

Rather than JATO bottles, a better option may be to have an 'electric runway', that allows you to draw ground-power while accelerating down the runway, which might save a non-trivial amount of battery capacity, and may allow you to run your motors at a higher power output than the batteries would normally allow. As an added bonus, the runway could be shorter.