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by AKSucks 1792 days ago
Already done with gliders via ground-based winches, which once "bootstrapped" with enough height and forward momentum are usually self-sustaining, but you have to be in weather conditions suitable for it - thermals and such.

It's wildly impractical at scale. It's not just takeoff, either. It's climb. There is no way to assist a flight up to 30,000+ feet.