This paper deals with the design of an electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS). The system studied is based on a linear permanent-magnet (PM) machine. For the same thermal, geometric, and feeding specifications, original configurations of linear machines have been studied and compared to more classical ones in terms of performance. The work shows that originals structures which use Halbach array configuration in association with unconventional winding strategy can produce very interesting solutions with which to build an EMALS synchronous PM machine.