Talk:JATO

Story

There is a story (perhaps urban legend) of a person who attempted to attach one of these to his automobile. He was apparently awarded a posthumous IgNobel for his efforts. Eclecticology

The story is indeed an urban legend. And that fictive person was awarded with the Darwin Award Ben-Zin

Reversed JATO

I have seen a video on youtube.com, where a C-130 had JATO's strapped behind the cockpit in reversed direction (thrusting forward). Now in this video the airplane blew up, but is this a used technique or was it just a test ?

The video was probably of one of the tests carried out for Operation Credible Sport, a scheme to rescue the hostages in the Iran hostage crisis. As far as I can tell, the operation was always intended to be a one-off, and no-one is using 'reverse JATO' operationally. That said, a fairly standard - albeit often unofficial - short field landing technique involves putting the propellors into reverse pitch just before touch down. --Scott Wilson 17:28, 16 January 2007 (UTC)a

Types (RATO/JATO)

These are actually two different types of assisted take-offs. RATO uses rocket motors (often jettisonable after use) - hence Rocket Assisted Take-Off, whilst the other - JATO - uses small auxiliary jet engines - hence Jet Assisted Take-Off.

RATO is usually used as an add-on supplement to an aircraft's own engines, whereas JATO is usually built-in to the aircraft, as a form of permanent auxiliary take-off booster.

Examples I can think of include the de Havilland Sprite rocket motor intended as a RATO supplement on the de Havilland Comet and Vickers Valiant to help them get-off in 'hot and high' conditions, and for JATO the auxiliary underwing turbojets later added to the Lockheed Neptune and the Convair B-36, although in the case of the B-36 they were intended more for increasing the altitude achievable over the target.

We could certainly use expansion of this distinction in the article, and a note on how rare JATO was (and why). I can only think of those two and the Shackleton that used it. Even then, I think that was as much about "hot and high" as it was for takeoff. The problem is that most pure turbojets are at their worst when asked to instantly deliver peak thrust, at ground level, at zero airspeed. Andy Dingley (talk) 19:03, 26 September 2009 (UTC)

Why ever is the page named JATO? JATO and RATO are most totally not interchangeably used! Its two very different systems that happens to be used for similar effect. But usually not for the same reasons. And while RATO is used quite alot, JATO is pretty much nonexistent and almost completely irrelevant.

JATO "the most popular version"? Not bloody likely! With the massive use of RATO packs by USSR, everyone who needs to, knows what you mean if you talk about a RATO pack. If i started talking about JATO instead i would be making a big fool of myself. DW75 217.208.225.55 (talk) 05:14, 2 January 2010 (UTC)