Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!amdcad!military
From: brent@capmkt.com (Brent Chapman)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: RATO and JATO
Message-ID: <26808@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Date: 17 Aug 89 04:39:39 GMT
References: <26745@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Sender: cdr@amdcad.AMD.COM
Organization: Capital Market Technology, Inc.; Berkeley, CA
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Approved: military@amdcad.amd.com



From: brent@capmkt.com (Brent Chapman)

mmm@cup.portal.com writes:
# In AIR POWER: KEY TO SURVIVAL by Alexanader de Seversky, there's a picture
# of a B-47 taking off with JATO boosters (small jets strapped to the plane
# for extra power, which drop off after take-off, although these boosters
# look more like RATO, which are rockets).
# 
# I'm wondering whether RATO or JATO was purely experimental, or whether it
# was ever a deployed system?  Are any RATO or JATO system currently in use
# or under experimentation?

_THE_ most impressive demonstration flight at the July 4 Moffett Air Show
this year, as far as I'm concerned, was the JATO takeoff by the C-130 that
accompanies the Blue Angels (nicknamed "Fat Albert").  The plane comes
lumbering down the runway, rotates for takeoff, and then suddenly jumps
skyward at a truly incredible angle and rate as the crew lights the JATO
bottles...  An incredible amount of flames, smoke, and NOISE for about 5 or
10 seconds until the bottles burn out (or are turned off; not sure which,
but I suspect the former) and the plane continues normally.

Maybe it's just that I've seen the fighter demonstrations so many times that
they get a sort of "so what?" reaction from me any more, but I thought this
demo was really something...


-Brent
--
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