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I'm guessing a 1km long catapult - if not 2km - would be really really tricky. Maybe a long winch with a super super super safe way to detach it as soon as the nose is pointing up?

But, regardless, it's actually shorter than I thought! Although 1G forward acceleration is still quite a bit. Imagine elderly passengers with osteoporosis... and the lawsuits.

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Instantaneous 1g might feel like a lot, but a relatively "soft" ramp to 1g would surely mitigate that complaint? I mean, we'd all be buckled into seats. And some sports cars can hit 1g with a good "drag race" start - and yes, that's definitely not something I'd do with granny in the seat, only pointing out it's not a crazy amount of acceleration if a factory-spec Mustang can do it.

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