Jeff is correct, B&M had nothing to do with the launch system. They designed the ride so that, provided the train was brought up to a certain speed (about 67mph), it would complete the course. They were also very apprehensive to changing any part of their sitdown train's design; hence why the idea of using pinch wheels came about. A system could be designed to utilize the same principle that B&M uses to advance trains into and out of the station.
The launch system itself was a collaboration between Universal and MTS Systems. More specifically, the MTS office in Eden Praire, Minnesota. The 240 motors that are needed to launch the train do use up quite a bit of power. The park has to be constantly pulling in power off of the local grid, and then dumping it into storage for use later. Each launch uses up a good deal of the electricity stored in the time since the last launch. As Jeff said, the city would suffer brownouts if not for the park's ability to "save up" power.
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James Draeger
http://draegs.tripod.com/ "Legend is a wooden Jesus"