Originally Posted by
Owen Self
Thinking of a civil passenger flight out of Washington, DC in 1969 that had what appeared to be a JATO take off, something that surprised me for a rather small passenger plane that had a capacity of maybe forty passengers.
Has anyone ever heard of a civil passenger plane equipped with JATO?
During that time frame there would have been Convair 240/340/440 and Martin 202/404 operating out of Washington DC. Neither manufacturer mentions the inclusion of RATO in the specifications. There may well have been smaller Beechcraft 18 and derivatives operating as "commuter" airline equipment. Some of these came factory equipped with RATO for critical engine out situations. Spent about 30 min searching for B-18 RATO installation pics with no luck.
As for "regular" use of RATO in civil (esp airline) service, I am quite skeptical due to expense and danger.
C2j