Recently, Robert Briggs posted:

Kevin Darling wrote:

Wikipedia makes an interesting point as well... that high-speed jets
taking off from an aircraft carrier need a catapult launcher to get
them up to flying speed. (Obviously the jets can also take off with
a long enough runway, but the similarity is that an assist to get to
speed shouldn't negate the accomplishment, in many people's
opinions.)

The assistance doesn't *negate* the accomplishment.

However, if the assistance is *necessary* then the accomplishment
is of something slightly different.

Perhaps the question at hand is the nature of the accomplishment; as I see
it, the accomplishment is getting a scramjet to work in the real world.
That is pretty amazing, IMO. Another accomplishment is that the _jet_ was
operating at Mach 10; equally amazing, as no other jet can do so, AFAIK.
The launch method would seem to be pretty much irrelevant to those
accomplishments.

Regards,

Neil