What were the weather conditions?

My speculation is Carb Ice - have seen it so many times in my '46 T-Craft that I taxi out with Carb Heat and usually leave it out until I apply take off power and then slide the Carb Heat off.

Had this happen several years ago on the first flight after installing all fresh cylinders - got airborne to about 200 ft then she gave up - it was after an extended period of idling while waiting for my turn to take off - it was warm and humid that day - spent 3 hrs looking for the cause and finally decided to try it again - never had another problem

I concluded it had to be Carb Ice after watching the engine run with the cowling off and noticing moisture forming on all the intake pipes and the spider - after shutting down the engine we could almost fill an 8 oz glass with all the water that dripped off the intake manifold

I had a 46 which had similar start stop syndrome going. Went on for several months. After carb work, cylinder work, and everything imagined I threw up my hands and said to the mechanics, quit changing things until you KNOW THATS THE PROBLEM. When you know you've got it you'll know! It was finally discovered to be connected to the aircrafts attitude. That led to the conclusion it was a water/ice problem in the fuel system. The line between tank and carb was just long enough and dropped down enough that a fuel drain during pre-flight wasn't draining the water in this low spot. When the attitude changed during takeoff or in other pitch up attitudes the water would be free to move out of the low spot and cause rough engine or stoppage altogether.

I would go for carb ice. I have had that happen twice in two very bad locations. Once on the south side of Chicago. Carb heat didn't help (barely cleared the trees on the south end of a small airport) and once over the mountains in SE Oklahoma. The ice built up quickly and when I pulled the carb heat on a chunk got sucked into the engine and everything went quiet. After about 10 seconds I got a restart. I aged ten years in that 10 seconds. Never found any problem on either aircraft once on the ground. Sounds like carb ice to me. Disclaimer: I'm not an A&P, just lucky.