NASA
Water jet propelled "rocket" sled

        http://lisar.larc.nasa.gov/UTILS/info.cgi?id=EL-2002-00456

Something like an alternative technology horizontal LASER launcher.

It still pulls only about 1/3 the g's of a Peroxide powered rocket dragster.
But it has a larger payload :-)

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Aircraft Landing Dynamics Facility (ALDF)
Description: Original Test Carriage: A carriage catapulted by a hydraulic
jet at speeds up to 150 mph for studies of ground loads on high-speed
aircraft is in operation at the Langley Research Center of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration. A drop test rig is installed on the
carriage, which is catapulted 400 feet in 3.5 seconds. The carriage travels
along a track and special instruments record loads data as an aircraft
landing gear or other test specimen is dropped on a concrete strip. Five
cables attached to a battery of 20 Navy Mark IV arresting gears, stretched
across the 2,200-foot track, bring the carriage to a halt after the test
run. The carriage, when loaded to its capacity of 20,000 pounds, represents
a 50-ton load. The hydraulic catapult consists of a single water jet, which
roars from a nozzle at the front end of the L-shaped pressure vessel
(center) and is forced into a specially-shaped bucket on the carriage. The
water jet, traveling at 660 feet per second, undergoes a 180 degree change
of direction and floods out of another opening in the bucket below the
incoming jet stream. The momentum change produces a thrust on the carriage
of 400,00 pounds

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Source: ARocket list

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