[ElTianti]

guess I was imagining an actual airborne platform for launch AND recovery, but after further analysis you're probably right. The plane is merely dropped from another plane and then lands on it's own on the ground somewhere. I know Germany had launch AND recovery systems for light aircraft from derigibles pre-WWII, and of course we all know that the early x-planes of Chuck Yeager vintage were dropped from B-29's. Like I said, I guess my imagination got the best of me because the image of a massive 'aircraft carrier' floating in the sky is what came to mind! Oh well, I'm back firmly on the ground now! ;>))

In the 50's the USAF test a similar concept the
B-36"Peacemaker" (great name) bomber carrying the
very tiny McDonnell XF-85 Goblin.

However wiser heads prevailed...

[PAR35]

Space Wrangler:

I know Germany had launch AND recovery systems for light aircraft from derigibles pre-WWII,

Wrong country, right time period

It was the United States that experimented with launching- and recovering - Curtiss XF9C-1 "Sparrowhawk" fighters from the USS Akron. Photos can be found here:
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/ac-usn22/z-types/zrs4-m.htm

You may have been confused by an historically inaccurate scene in one of the "Indiana Jones" movies in which he escapes from a German Zeppelin in that manner.