Poor car. Bet it never thought it would be doing this, ever. Maybe it thought it would be in the next James Bond movie. Or make an appearance in The Fast and the Furious 398475606. A cameo in Cars would even have sufficed.

But getting launched off the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier in a test run for a new catapult system? I doubt that was on the cards.

The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a $737 million contract to General Atomics for their Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, which will allow “for smoother acceleration and can launch a wider range of vehicles, such as lightweight drones”.

[The system] flings aircraft into the sky using electromagnetic power, a significant improvement over the steam-powered catapults currently in use by the Navy.

Imagine being in a big, inflated, transparent ball and getting catapulted into the ocean… I see a new theme park idea emerging here…

[Source: Time]