One could launch a glider-type aircraft from what amounts to a giant slingshot or a fast-moving pulley powered by a counterweight. While this would not be a suitable weapons platform, it could be a very acceptable recce platform. With the right equipment, it might also be a radio relay station.
The real trick is having a sufficiently stable food source, a tolerable local security situation, people with the requisite skills available, and the right tools and materials. With some imagination, I'm sure many specific locales justifiably could be made to have all of these things.
I'm thinking that the Navy in SF Bay might put up an aerostat for radio relay and observation. If a pre-war aerostat can be refitted and repurposed, it may be possible to include a weatherized cabin with a radio room, etc. Crews might go up for approximately twelve hours at a time, although the intervals should be unpredicatble. The aerostat would be lowered for crew changes, then put back up for the next period of operations. If nothing else, a big balloon with the national colors and US NAVY on it visible from every part of the Bay should boost the good guys' morale.
Webstral
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