JATO, "So that's how it worked!" ...

[Mark Allen M]

JATO: Jet Assisted Takeoff of Carrier Aircraft 1945 US Navy Training Film. Both the F6F Hellcat and F4U Corsair.

https://vimeo.com/501211533

More types here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0qcKTVPrXQ

[Xray]

I remember when Fat Albert used to do the JATO takeoffs, quite impressive to see a C-130 climb nearly vertical into the sky on a pillar of smoke.

One show at Selfridge ANGB MI, an entire side misfired and failed to go off, Albert immediately leveled off, looped around and landed, crew evacuated right on the runway and the aircraft was swarmed by emergency vehicles. They waited a full 45 minutes before towing it away, and that was the last time I saw a JATO takeoff.

[Matt Gunsch]

And it was a lowly little Ercoupe that did it first.

Attachments

Ercoupe_JATO_41.jpg (13.73 KiB) Viewed 2009 times

Last edited by Matt Gunsch on Thu Jan 19, 2023 7:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[airnutz]

Matt, el linko no worko...

[Lon Moer]

Technically not "jet" engines but rockets, so not JATO but RATO.

[airnutz]

Technically not "jet" engines but rockets, so not JATO but RATO.

Welllll, technically Lon, they are both "jet" engines when you are describing the type of thrust
they emit. They both emit high pressure propulsive streams of gas. The names were later pigeonholed into different categories depending on the propulsion "engine" used....a chemical one or a mechanical one as technology evolved as I understand the subject.
When first developed at the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory California Institute of Technology(GALCINT), RATO was christened JATO. You did say technically...just sayin'....

[Matt Gunsch]

Matt, el linko no worko...

fixed it

[Duggy009]

In the UK it was referred to as RATOG for rocket-assisted take-off gear.
All Seafires after trials in February 43, were capable of using it.