JATO
JATO is the abbreviation for J et A ssisted T ake O ff ( English for jet propulsion-assisted aircraft take-off ). Instead of this term, the more precise term RATO for R ocket A ssisted T ake O ff (English for rocket-assisted aircraft launch ) is used. It is a system to make it easier for heavily loaded aircraft to take off on short runways by generating additional thrust from small missiles . Today solid fuel rockets are generally used for JATO / RATO.
development
In the 1920s, Germany experimented for the first time with using rockets to get gliders into the air and to brake cargo gliders when they land. Usable JATO systems were not developed until World War II .
Second World War
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force introduced a system for launching fighters from merchant ships. Quite large liquid rockets, which were mounted on the bow, were used to launch aircraft (mostly the Hawker Hurricane ) from a small ramp. The system offered protection from German reconnaissance planes. The rocket was released after launch and sank in the sea. Since it was not possible to land on the ships, the pilots jumped off with the parachute after the mission or tried to water in order to be picked up again by one of the escort ships. A restart with the same aircraft was not possible.
air force
The Air Force used JATO technology to help their smaller but heavily loaded bombers into the air, which otherwise would have taken too long runways. This became particularly important when the runways of military airports were increasingly divided by Allied bombs during the course of the war. The German system usually used Walter HWK 109-500 jump start rocket propulsion that used hydrogen peroxide as fuel.
The rockets were mounted under the wings as a pair per aircraft and were dropped after take-off. A parachute on the front of the missiles slowed the fall so the system could be reused.
In other German experiments, attempts were also made to support interceptors such as the Messerschmitt Me 262 during take-off or climb in order to be able to reach enemy bomber formations more quickly at height. Similar experiments were also carried out in the Soviet Union in the late 1950s with a modified MiG-19 called the SM-30.
post war period
After the Second World War, JATO was a quite common aid, due to the weak thrust of the jet engines of the time . With the increasing thrust of the engines, the use of JATOs quickly declined again, also due to the cost and effort. In the late 1940s, Aerojet Engineering Corp. experimented. with a solid rocket launch vehicle for sport aircraft that developed 250 lbf (1110 N) of thrust. The take-off distance of a fully loaded Ryan Navion was shortened from 244 m (800 feet) to 92 m (300 feet). The US tested JATO technology on a B-47 at Edwards Air Force Base in California in the 1950s .
JATOs are still used today, but usually only for take-offs under difficult conditions, for example when heavily loaded aircraft have to take off from short runways. In the Third Gulf War it was z. B. used for transport aircraft such as the LC-130 Hercules , this aid is still used by the USAF in Afghanistan to gain altitude faster with the extra thrust and the resulting steeper climb and thus potential dangers such as surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft guns to escape faster. The conversions of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and Dassault Mirage fighter planes with additional permanently mounted liquid missiles in the west proved their worth, but were expensive and dangerous to use and ultimately became obsolete due to the technical development of aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles.
CELL
The attempt to launch modern fighter aircraft, such as the Starfighter , with a single solid fuel rocket practically from a standing start and without any runway, was successfully carried out in Germany and the United States. In Germany such tests were carried out under the name ZELL (Zero Length Launch). A launch device was installed at Fighter Bomber Wing 32 in Lechfeld and seven test starts were carried out. The thrust of the booster was 274.4 kN, which was enough to accelerate the machine, which weighs a maximum of 10 tons, to around 500 km / h in 8 seconds. The high costs of 115,000 DM per launch, but above all the changed NATO strategy, led to the program being discontinued relatively quickly.
(with start booster) in the Military History Museum at Berlin-Gatow airfield
Missile Support In Flight (SEPR)
In the Mirage III aircraft of the French or Swiss Air Force, a fuel tank could be removed in the rear lower fuselage and a rocket engine installed instead. This auxiliary engine burned for a total of 80 seconds and could be switched on three times. The engine was used either for additional acceleration in aerial combat or to overshoot the service ceiling to 75,000 feet.
use
The US Navy demonstration team, the Blue Angels , used JATO missiles until the end of 2009 to lift the Lockheed C-130 Hercules Fat Albert ( Fat Albert ) to less than 450 meters and a particularly steep climb at the start of a flight demonstration to enable. On November 14th, 2009, the last take-off using the jump start was when Fat Albert started in Pensacola at the end of the 2009 Blue Angels season.
Operation Credible Sport was the plan for a US military operation in the late 1980s to release hostages held by Iran using JATO-modified C-130 cargo planes. Allegedly, the length of a football field should be sufficient as a landing and take-off stretch for this variant. To reduce the landing distance, it was planned to ignite JATO engines as brake engines at the moment of touchdown or immediately before. The plan was not carried out because, among other things, the first prototype had already been destroyed during the test landing.
photos
JATO rocket engine
An LC-130 Hercules takes off from a snow surface with the help of JATO missiles
A Mirage IIIS of the Swiss Air Force takes off using JATO
JATO set of four for Mirage IIIS / RS
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Popular Science, Jan. 1950, p. 115
- ↑ "F-104 G Zell" , bredow-web.de, November 30, 2009
- ↑ Les cigognes de Dijon , Flight International, September 5, 1963
- ↑ "Nov. 14 is final JATO for popular Fat Albert" ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Navytimes.com, November 30, 2009
