Frank Nixon, from whom I first learned of the disc engine, was a senior engineer at Rolls-Royce in Derby.
On a visit in 1929 to the then Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, he was shown the work being carried out on an experimental catapult to launch aircraft from ships. This used a high speed engine to wind in a rope hooked to the plane. He was astonished to find the engine was a Dakeyne type disc engine which was fuelled by dynamite!
Presumably the steam catapults used on aircraft carriers today proved much more satisfactory!