Originally Posted by
atakacs
I'm sure more knowledgeable people will respond but I know for fact it was considered for the
727
It's wasn't just considered - it was certified and in-service with Mexicana for several years. Basically needed so they could get out of Mexico City with a decent load on a hot day. I don't think anyone besides Mexicana ever got it, and it was eventually made obsolete by higher thrust variations of the JT8D engines.
They were only there for engine-out during takeoff, and I don't believe it was ever used in anger. But way back when I talked to someone who'd flight tested the 727 JATO option. He said it was pretty much a non-event, he couldn't even tell when they lit the JATO bottles - he rather doubted it would have been that much help in a real engine out scenario but it made the regulators happy.
When we were flight testing the 747-8, we needed to do some cold weather testing in the early autumn and went to Kangerlussuaq Airport in Greenland to get the required temps. First day we were there it wasn't cold enough for the testing so we basically got the day off to explore. Everywhere you looked there were used JATO bottles about - they used them for fences, table legs, even ashtrays. They use a lot of JATO bottles flying C130's off of the Greenland Icecap, and apparently it wasn't worth the trouble to reuse or recycle the used bottles so they just repurposed them for other uses.