Aircraft are designed for a particular takeoff distance based on their planned mission profile. Sometimes, though, you need to get that aircraft into and out of smaller airfields. Getting into them is relatively easy since landing distance is much shorter than the required takeoff distance. Getting out is much harder.
Sometimes, the best answer is the simplest. As early as the 1920s, the answer to this problem seemed to be, “Add rockets to the plane!” And so the JATO (Jet Assisted Take Off, more technically correct is Rocket Assisted Take Off) concept was born. Leading up to WW2, Germany and Britain both toyed around with the idea, and both had limited JATO use during the war. After WW2, the use of JATO and RATO grew. A true jet-powered takeoff assist system was fitted to the Avro Shackleton MR.3 due to its increased weight over the previous all-prop variants. Early jets were also pretty slow to produce thrust and so RATO systems became fairly common to assist in takeoff.
Once jet engine technology advanced, RATO systems saw diminished use. However, they were still needed to get a large plane in and out of smaller airfields. One of the most famous planes to receive a JATO fitment is the Blue Angels support plane, Fat Albert, shown in the video below.
[Image Credit: Public Domain]
Appropriate and judicious application of the N button there.
<img src="http://hollywoodhatesme.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/coyote-and-rocket.jpg" width=”446”>
I don't see any problems with this situation.
I miss Road Runner cartoons! The crap they call cartoons these days…
Get off my TV!!!
The second jump I performed at Airborne School at Fort Benning, GA, was in a C123 equipped with JATO bottles. We were the second and third sticks to leave the bird, and were a bunch of privates scared shitless. The damn plane took off like straight up, and the bastards left the ramp down and the doors open. There were a bunch of HALO snake eaters all stoked to fall out of the sky, and the Air Force gave them a wild ride up to whatever stratospheric altitude those madmen jump from. They all dived off of the ramp, from near earth orbit, and we cherries were contemplating our fates while the plane dove down from the heavens to 1200 feet, where those jumpmaster sonsabitches kicked us off the plane, laughing at our paranoia. It was a wild ride, and the best part of it all was when I was under my own personal canopy, in charge of my own destiny, and it turned out fine. I like airplanes, I like them a lot, but that day I decided that I liked taking care of landing much more all by myself, with a parachute, than trusting the Zoomies to do it for me. Buncha madmen.
Good story.
Outstanding story. I worked with a bunch of PJ's for while. Great guys even if they jumped out of perfectly functional aircraft.
The craziest jump I saw was at Duke airfield where couple of guys exited a small turboprop, doing 200kts plus, at 250' agl! It was supposed to be a new insertion method and I don't know if they ever used it in anger. Talk about big brass ones. On the same trip, on a nice hot summer day in Florida, we were participating in jump accuracy competition. I dropped one of my guys at 1200' on a static line, then came came around to drop his partner. Now, my guy weighed about 140 lbs soaking wet and usually had about another 100 lbs worth of gear strapped to him (weapon, radio, medical kit, etc) but this day he was was doing a rare clean jump and was supposed to land as close to the bullseye as possible (under a round chute). By the time I lined up to do the second drop, my guy was at 1800' and climbing. Damn thermals. Needless to say he missed the pea bowl by about a mile. He was lucky not to end up in a swamp.
I weigh more than 140 lbs. and I've been caught in thermals while jumping. All you have to do, is to steer from them, pull a toggle or a slip, and you'll steer out of them. Of course, they're so much fun to get caught in that most guys will go along with them, then steer towards the DZ once they're away from them. Especially if you happen to land nearer the trucks that you are supposed to leave in. Then, tell everyone that they were caught in them, couldn't escape. Good fun, especially when you're jumping Hollywood, no combat equipment. As opposed to nasty winds, and full equipment, nobody likes that.
My name is Caratacus Potts and I approve this message.
<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DA65N7-uH0s/Tcd5BuJgiaI/AAAAAAAADwI/aJsX1dadUL0/s1600/3489_7_large.jpg" width="400">
you have got an incredible blog here! would you like to have request content on my small blog?