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There was a way crazier project that took the idea of pre-accelerating the launcher to the extreme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpinLaunch

“Radian’s solution is a rocket-powered sled that runs along a two-mile rail and accelerates up to Mach 0.7 — 537 mph (864 kilometers per hour) — before releasing the space plane”.

Once released from the rail track (a flat track at ground level, I assume), won’t air drag hit it like a ton of bricks?

Maybe if they put the track on top of a 20,000 foot mountain, and/or somehow released the spacecraft at a 45 degree angle?

it will already be experiencing air drag unless they launch from a vacuum (which is how spinlaunch does the thing).

the article doesn't really say, but I'm guessing this lets them use a rocket motor that would perform well after that initial acceleration but would struggle with producing that acceleration on its own.

I thought launchers like Pegasus were going to be the future. Hauling heavy objects up into the atmosphere is basically a solved problem, and the aircraft that can do it are about as reusable as you're gonna get.

Radian Aerospace wants to reinvent the space rocket – as a space plane – CNN