There have been all kinds of wild ideas to get spacecraft into orbit. Everything from firing huge cannons to spinning craft at rapid speed has been posited, explored, or in some cases, even tested to some degree. And yet, good ol’ flaming rockets continue to dominate all, because they actually get the job done.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://hackaday.com/2024/05/13/youve-probably-never-considered-taking-an-airship-to-orbit/