JATO'd per request ...

[Malo83]

The pic of the P2V making a RATO takeoff is the Truculent Turtle on the start of the famous longest flight for a piston engined aircraft, Perth, Australia to Columbus,Ohio, a record setting 11,236 miles. It was packed with fuel in every nook and cranny that fuel could be carried, so heavy she needed RATO to get off the ground
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_P ... _Turtle.22

[Pogo]

Man, I can't help but wonder how pilots liked flying with those things? Wonder if it's as fun as it looks at first glance, or ends up being worrisome in some way or another in practice?

[Kyleb]

Man, I can't help but wonder how pilots liked flying with those things? Wonder if it's as fun as it looks at first glance, or ends up being worrisome in some way or another in practice?

The Mariner with the liquid fueled rockets would scare the pants off of me. Liquid fueled rockets have a lot of failure points, and rockets often fail in pretty nasty ways.

[Pogo]

No such thing as a safe rocket.

[Chris Brame]

Wildcat JATO madness ...

Can't quite make out what type is behind in the smoke.

Curtiss SOC maybe?

North American XB-45 (SN 45-59479) as a testbed for rocket assisted take-off. Taken Sept. 24, 1958. (U.S. Air Force photo)

Millionmonkeytheater.com lists this plane as "6/28/1949: Written off at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH." Should the year on this shot be 1948?

[tom d. friedman]

The U.S. NAVY'S Blue Angels stopped doing jato / rato with it's c- 130 FAT Albert a few years ago, because they flat out ran out of the bottles that were all 50's vintage. they were only used for show anyway.

[Pogmusic]

I had a friend who was a Korean War fighter pilot and he use to tell stories how they would have to bulldoze a path through all the JATO bottles at the end of the runways that were dropped by heavily loaded F-84s.

[Matt Gunsch]

Wildcat JATO madness ...

Can't quite make out what type is behind in the smoke.

J2F Duck

[Mark Allen M]

More JATO joy ...



A PBM Mariner makes a Jet Assisted Take Off from an unidentified body of water

















USCG UF-1 Albatross pictured making a jet assisted take off (JATO) at Naval Station Kodiak, Alaska.


Beech UC-45F Rocket-Assisted Take-Off (RATO). (U.S. Air Force photo)

[sdennison]

Pop was flying B-47's during the Cuban Missile Crisis out of Forbes and JATO's were common.

[Larry Kraus]

Another very interesting thread. Thanks, Mark. One question concerning the system on the PB2Y. With something so simple, what could possibly go wrong? Have a Happy New Year. I'm looking forward to more of your posts in 2015.

[Nathan]

That's a SOC Seagull behind the Wildcat. They had the ability to use land gear and occasionally some carriers had one as a hack and took off and landed on the carriers. This probably happened more often during the early years of the war or before.

[Rocketeer]

Spectacular photos!

Seeing the system on the Mariner and other large flying boats is very exciting!

[Flat 12x2]

B-17 JATO madcap madness ...


Rockets Aid Fortress In Short Take Off. Twelve Rockets Mounted Beneath The Wings Of A B-17 Flying Fortress Of The U.S. Army 8Th Air Force

Thats the JATO being used for real I think ?, 401st BG machine after an emergency landing, normally at RAF Deenethorpe, repaired and on its way (matting under the main wheels), too short a normal take off run so the JATO used, as well as excess weight striped out, no guns.

[daviemax]

B-17 JATO madcap madness ...


Rockets Aid Fortress In Short Take Off. Twelve Rockets Mounted Beneath The Wings Of A B-17 Flying Fortress Of The U.S. Army 8Th Air Force

Thats the JATO being used for real I think ?, 401st BG machine after an emergency landing, normally at RAF Deenethorpe, repaired and on its way (matting under the main wheels), too short a normal take off run so the JATO used, as well as excess weight striped out, no guns.

This is consistent with (IIRC) Roger Freeman's report in The Mighty Eighth.