Civil passenger aircraft with JATO
You had a rocket like a bomb in the hangar all the time
Both the Sea Fury and Firefly were equipped to use JATO from the carriers.
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Presume the turbojets (correct description?) attached to the B-36 and C-82 were only used for take off? Trying to recall if any other types were so fitted.
Spooky, going back to the Queen Air, you aren't thinking of the augmentor exhausts are you? Bloody noisy things, sound great though. Used to occasionally see German AF Do-28Ds heading home across South London at 10000' or so from (I think) Brawdy - you would first hear them when they were still miles away and continue to hear them when they were miles past - and they were not the fastest dog in the pack by any stretch of the imagination!
Spooky, going back to the Queen Air, you aren't thinking of the augmentor exhausts are you? Bloody noisy things, sound great though. Used to occasionally see German AF Do-28Ds heading home across South London at 10000' or so from (I think) Brawdy - you would first hear them when they were still miles away and continue to hear them when they were miles past - and they were not the fastest dog in the pack by any stretch of the imagination!
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Back in the 1970s, I spent a lot of time at the Eastern Airlines base in Miami, Florida. One day I noticed a B-727 in one of their maintenance hangars that had unusual metal disc-looking "patches" on the fuselage fairing just aft of the wing trailing edge. These "discs" looked like those on C-130s I had seen while in the USAF, and, curious, I asked one of the mechanics what they were. He stated that they were frangible coverings of the RATO/JATO bottle exhaust nozzles. He further stated that Eastern had 2 or 3 B-727s with RATO/JATO capability that were used on South American or Central American routes which featured high altitude airports. He couldn't tell me whether or not they had ever been used.
Cheers,
Grog
Cheers,
Grog
Presume the turbojets (correct description?) attached to the B-36 and C-82 were only used for take off?
If we digress further from the airliners:
P2V Neptune
versions with FixedUnder the wing pylon mounted Jet Assisted Take Off
but also (earlier) versions with Rocket ATO mounted against the aft fuselage.
P2V Neptune
versions with FixedUnder the wing pylon mounted Jet Assisted Take Off
but also (earlier) versions with Rocket ATO mounted against the aft fuselage.
Tin-foil is usually aluminum Foil, or aluminium for our UK or "English" friends...
"Lead" pencils are graphite
"Chalk" is gypsum
"Holland" is not the Netherlands
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etc. etc.
Fight it, ignore it, or embrace it.
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Presume the turbojets (correct description?) attached to the B-36 and C-82 were only used for take off? Trying to recall if any other types were so fitted.
Spooky, going back to the Queen Air, you aren't thinking of the augmentor exhausts are you? Bloody noisy things, sound great though. Used to occasionally see German AF Do-28Ds heading home across South London at 10000' or so from (I think) Brawdy - you would first hear them when they were still miles away and continue to hear them when they were miles past - and they were not the fastest dog in the pack by any stretch of the imagination!
Spooky, going back to the Queen Air, you aren't thinking of the augmentor exhausts are you? Bloody noisy things, sound great though. Used to occasionally see German AF Do-28Ds heading home across South London at 10000' or so from (I think) Brawdy - you would first hear them when they were still miles away and continue to hear them when they were miles past - and they were not the fastest dog in the pack by any stretch of the imagination!
From an old AOPA article on the Twin Bonanza and Queen Air. Scroll down, close to the end. I recall this as I was working at the Van Nuys airport as a line boy around 1961 and one of our hangar customers had a Model 65. I believe it had this installation as would have been befitting the owner, a John Von Nuemann, local Ferrari distributor and owner of Competition Motors. He later bought at MS760 from Beach as they were going to distribute that ac in the US. This link talks to the D50 but since the D50 and Model 65 Queen Air were almost identical in many respects I will assume the both aircraft had this option.Wished I could find a picture but as I recall the installation sat on top of the engine cowl and was streamlined in such a way that it was barely noticeable.
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/...h-twin-bonanza
Last edited by Spooky 2; 14th Aug 2020 at 19:51.
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One lives and learns! Somewhere I've got the Putnam Beechcraft book - see if I can locate it - it's not with my others as it is a different size and a lot of books are in boxes at present,
Van Nuys must have been a superb place to be in the 60s, seems to be all biz jets now... The couple of times I was in LA either side of 2000 I didn't get there or to Burbank.
Van Nuys must have been a superb place to be in the 60s, seems to be all biz jets now... The couple of times I was in LA either side of 2000 I didn't get there or to Burbank.
That is correct - the turbojets gave them better dash speed when in dangerous territory. They were often used for takeoff as well, but really didn't help that much (pure jets have lousy low speed performance).
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One lives and learns! Somewhere I've got the Putnam Beechcraft book - see if I can locate it - it's not with my others as it is a different size and a lot of books are in boxes at present,
Van Nuys must have been a superb place to be in the 60s, seems to be all biz jets now... The couple of times I was in LA either side of 2000 I didn't get there or to Burbank.
Van Nuys must have been a superb place to be in the 60s, seems to be all biz jets now... The couple of times I was in LA either side of 2000 I didn't get there or to Burbank.
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You have that right. When my mind drifts off towards avaition I seldom think about anything newer that the 707/727 albeit, I flew most of the big jets, minus the Grand Lady 747.
Did get to fly the DC4, DC6B, DC7C along with the 1049H and C97. Even got a quick shot at the Comet 4C. At the time I couldn't;t wait t get a bid on the 720/707. I should have just relaxed and taken my time while absorbing all the sounds and smells of the big pistons
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Can’t have a thread about JATO/RATO bottles without this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHUsGFGhfmk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHUsGFGhfmk
The Arizona Highway Patrol were mystified when they came upon a pile of smoldering wreckage embedded in the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. The metal debris resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it turned out to be the vaporized remains of an automobile. The make of the vehicle was unidentifiable at the scene. The folks in the lab finally figured out what it was, and pieced together the events that led up to its demise.
It seems that a former Air Force sergeant had somehow got hold of a JATO (Jet Assisted Take-Off) unit. JATO units are solid fuel rockets used to give heavy military transport airplanes an extra push for take-off from short airfields.
Dried desert lakebeds are the location of choice for breaking the world ground vehicle speed record. The sergeant took the JATO unit into the Arizona desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. He attached the JATO unit to his car, jumped in, accelerated to a high speed, and fired off the rocket. The facts, as best as could be determined, are as follows:
The operator was driving a 1967 Chevy Impala. He ignited the JATO unit approximately 3.9 miles from the crash site. This was established by the location of a prominently scorched and melted strip of asphalt. The vehicle quickly reached a speed of between 250 and 300 mph and continued at that speed, under full power, for an additional 20-25 seconds. The soon-to-be pilot experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog-fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners.
The Chevy remained on the straight highway for approximately 2.6 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver applied the brakes, completely melting them, blowing the tires, and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface. The vehicle then became airborne for an additional 1.3 miles, impacted the cliff face at a height of 125 feet, and left a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock.
Most of the driver’s remains were not recovered; however, small fragments of bone, teeth, and hair were extracted from the crater, and fingernail and bone shards were removed from a piece of debris believed to be a portion of the steering wheel.
It seems that a former Air Force sergeant had somehow got hold of a JATO (Jet Assisted Take-Off) unit. JATO units are solid fuel rockets used to give heavy military transport airplanes an extra push for take-off from short airfields.
Dried desert lakebeds are the location of choice for breaking the world ground vehicle speed record. The sergeant took the JATO unit into the Arizona desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. He attached the JATO unit to his car, jumped in, accelerated to a high speed, and fired off the rocket. The facts, as best as could be determined, are as follows:
The operator was driving a 1967 Chevy Impala. He ignited the JATO unit approximately 3.9 miles from the crash site. This was established by the location of a prominently scorched and melted strip of asphalt. The vehicle quickly reached a speed of between 250 and 300 mph and continued at that speed, under full power, for an additional 20-25 seconds. The soon-to-be pilot experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog-fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners.
The Chevy remained on the straight highway for approximately 2.6 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver applied the brakes, completely melting them, blowing the tires, and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface. The vehicle then became airborne for an additional 1.3 miles, impacted the cliff face at a height of 125 feet, and left a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock.
Most of the driver’s remains were not recovered; however, small fragments of bone, teeth, and hair were extracted from the crater, and fingernail and bone shards were removed from a piece of debris believed to be a portion of the steering wheel.
This reminds me of a colleague's reminiscence, which may be the basis of the JATO story. He was a military pilot In the 50's in Guam, when two men strapped not one but two JATO engines to the back of a military Jeep. They took it to Guam's 3-mile airstrip and ignited the engines, which hurled them 200 yards down the runway before the Jeep, now travelling at more than 300 mph, disintegrated. The men were shredded to bits, and the engines broke free from the remains of the jeep and darted wildly around the base before burning out. A film of this incident exists, in a military archive or maybe in a shoebox in someone's attic.