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{{Short description|Type of aircraft assisted take-off}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}

[[File:First JATO assisted Flight - GPN-2000-001538.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|The first "rocket-assisted" take-off in the United States, a [[Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory|GALCIT]] booster fitted to an [[ERCO Ercoupe]], at [[March Air Reserve Base|March Field]], California, 1941]]
'''JATO''' ([[acronym]] for '''jet-assisted take-off''') is a type of [[assisted take-off]] for helping overloaded aircraft into the air by providing additional thrust in the form of small [[rocket]]s.  The term ''JATO'' is used interchangeably with the (more specific) term '''RATO''', for ''rocket-assisted take-off'' (or, in [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] parlance, '''RATOG''', for ''rocket-assisted take-off gear'').

==Early experiments and World War II==
In 1927 the [[Soviet]] research and development laboratory [[Gas Dynamics Laboratory]] developed [[solid-propellant rocket]]s to assist aircraft take-off and in 1931 the world's first successful use of rockets to assist take-off of aircraft were carried out on a [[:ru:У-1|U-1]], the [[Soviet Union military aircraft designation systems|Soviet designation]] for a [[Avro 504]] trainer, which achieved about one hundred successful assisted takeoffs.<ref name="Glushko">{{cite book |last1=Glushko |first1=Valentin |title=Developments of Rocketry and Space Technology in the USSR |date=1973 |publisher=Novosti Press Pub. House |page=7 |url=https://www.amazon.com/Development-rocketry-space-technology-USSR/dp/B0006CHI4I}}</ref><ref>[http://www.airwar.ru/enc/other1/u1.html У-1] на сайте airwar.ru – «Уголок неба»</ref> Successful assisted takeoffs were also achieved on the [[Tupolev TB-1]].<ref name="RSB_GDL">{{cite web |last1=Zak |first1=Anatoly |title=Gas Dynamics Laboratory |url=http://www.russianspaceweb.com/gdl.html |website=Russian Space Web |access-date=29 May 2022}}</ref> and [[Tupolev TB-3]] Heavy Bombers.<ref name="Glushko" /><ref name="R&P_Vol1">{{cite book |last1=Chertok |first1=Boris |title=Rockets and People |date=31 January 2005 |publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration |pages=164–165 |edition=Volume 1 |url=https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/rockets_people_vol1_detail.html |access-date=29 May 2022}}</ref> The official test of the Tupolev TB-1 in 1933 shortened the takeoff by 77% when using the rockets.<ref name="Glushko" />

Early experiments using rockets to boost [[Glider (aircraft)|gliders]] into the air were conducted in Germany in the 1920s ([[Lippisch Ente]]), and later both the [[Royal Air Force]] and the [[Luftwaffe]] introduced such systems in [[World War II]].<ref>"For operations from small flight decks with heavy loads, rocket-assisted take-offs were necessary." http://uboat.net/allies/aircraft/swordfish.htm</ref> The British system used fairly large solid fuel rockets to shoot planes (typically the [[Hawker Hurricane]]) off a small ramp fitted to the fronts of merchant ships, known in service as [[CAM ship|Catapult armed merchantmen (or CAM Ships)]], in order to provide some cover against [[Nazi Germany|German]] [[maritime patrol]] planes. After firing, the rocket was released from the back of the plane to fall into the water and sink. The task done, the pilot would fly to friendly territory if possible or parachute from the plane, hopefully to be picked up by one of the escort vessels. Over two years the system was only employed nine times to attack German aircraft with eight kills recorded for the loss of a single pilot.

[[File:Arado 234B 1.jpg|thumb|right|A German [[Arado 234]] Blitz fitted with [[Walter HWK 109-500|''Starthilfe'']] RATO units]]
[[File:Ar 234 B-2 RATO and engine.jpg|thumb|Starthilfe RATO (left) on the starboard wing of Arado Ar 234 B-2 at the [[Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center]] in Virginia.]]
[[File:Walters 500.png|thumb|right|The ''Starthilfe'' RATO unit]]
The [[Luftwaffe]] also used the technique with both liquid-fueled units made by the [[Hellmuth Walter Kommanditgesellschaft|Walter]] firm and BMW&nbsp;– and solid fuel, themselves made both by [[List of aircraft engines of Germany during World War II#Rockets|the Schmidding and WASAG firms]]&nbsp;– as both firmly attached and jettisonable rocket motors, to get airborne more quickly and with shorter takeoff runs. These were used to boost the takeoff performance of their medium bombers, and the enormous 55-meter wingspan ''Gigant'', [[Messerschmitt Me 321]] glider, conceived in 1940 for the invasion of Britain, and used to supply the Russian front.  The enormous Me 321s originally had air tow assistance from up to three [[Messerschmitt Bf 110]] heavy fighters in a so-called ''Troika-Schlepp'' arrangement into the air with loads that would have made the takeoff run too long otherwise, but with much attendant risk of aerial collision from the trio of [[Vic formation|vee-formation]] Bf 110s involved in a simultaneous [[Aerotowing|towplane]] function, meant to be greatly eased with the substitution of the trio of Bf 110s with a single example of the unusual, twin-fuselage [[Heinkel He 111Z]] purpose-designed five-engined towplane. The use of rocket-assisted takeoff methods became especially important late in the war when the lengths of usable runways were severely curtailed due to the results of Allied bombing. Their system typically used jettisonable, self-contained [[Walter HWK 109-500]] ''Starthilfe'' ("takeoff-help"), also known as "Rauchgerät" – smoke generator, unitized liquid-fuel monopropellant rocket booster units whose engines driven by chemical decomposition of "[[T-Stoff]]", essentially almost pure [[hydrogen peroxide]], with a [[Z-Stoff]] catalytic compound.  A [[parachute]] pack at the blunt-contour front of the motor's exterior housing was used to slow its fall after being released from the plane, so the system could be re-used. First experiments were held in 1937 on a [[Heinkel He 111]], piloted by test-pilot [[Erich Warsitz]] at [[Neuhardenberg]], a large field about 70 kilometres east of [[Berlin]], listed as a reserve airfield in the event of war.<ref>Warsitz, Lutz: [http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/?product_id=1762 ''The First Jet Pilot – The Story of German Test Pilot Erich Warsitz'' (p. 45), Pen and Sword Books Ltd., England, 2009] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202223101/http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/?product_id=1762 |date=2 December 2013 }}</ref> Other German experiments with JATO were aimed at assisting the launch of interceptor aircraft such as the [[Messerschmitt Me 262]]C, as the ''Heimatschützer'' special versions, usually fitted with either a version of the [[Walter HWK 109-509]] liquid fuelled rocket engine from the [[Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet|Me 163]] ''Komet'' program either in the extreme rear of the fuselage or semi-"podded" beneath it just behind the wing's trailing edge, to assist its [[Junkers Jumo 004]] turbojets, or a pair of specially rocket-boosted [[BMW 003#"Mixed-power" upgrade|BMW 003R]] combination jet-rocket powerplants in place of the Jumo 004s, so that the Me 262C ''Heimatschützer'' interceptors could reach enemy bomber formations sooner. Two prototypes of the ''Heimatschützer'' versions of the Me 262 were built and test flown, of the three designs proposed. In contrast to [[Walter HWK 109-500#Applications|the wide variety of aircraft types]] that the HWK-designed ''Starthilfe'' modular liquid monopropellant booster designs were tested with, seeing some degree of front-line use;  the aforementioned solid-fueled RATO booster designs from both the Schmidding and WASAG firms remained almost strictly experimental in nature, with the [[Schmidding SG 34|Schmidding 500 kg thrust solid-fueled booster units]] intended to see service, a quartet mounted per airframe for use with the radical [[Bachem Ba 349]] VTO rocket interceptor design in 1945, for its vertical launch needs. The strictly experimental, HWK 109-501 ''Starthilfe'' RATO system used a similar bi-propellant "hot" motor to that on the [[Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet|Me 163B]] ''Komet'' rocket fighter, adding a 20&nbsp;kg mass of a combination of [[List of stoffs|B-stoff]] hydrazine, mixed with "Br-stoff" ([[ligroin]] hydrocarbon distillate) for a main "fuel" to the [[T-Stoff]] monopropellant still destabilized with the Z-Stoff permanganate for ignition as the oxidizer, tripling the 109-500's thrust figure of 4.95&nbsp;kN (at 14.71&nbsp;kN/1,500 kgf) with a burn of 30 second duration. Due to the "hot" system's similar risks demanding similar special fueling and handling procedures to that of the Komet's 509A rocket motor, the 109-501 seems to have remained a strictly experimental design, only being used for the test flights of the [[Junkers Ju 287]] V1 prototype jet bomber.<ref>[http://www.muzeumlotnictwa.pl/zbiory_sz.php?ido=226&w=a Krakow Polish Aviation Museum's page on the HWK 109-501 ''Starthilfe'' RATO pod]</ref>

In early 1939, the [[National Academy of Sciences]] in the United States provided $1,000 to [[Theodore von Kármán]] and the Rocket Research Group (including [[Jack Parsons (rocket engineer)|Jack Parsons]], [[Frank Malina]], [[Edward Forman]] and [[Apollo M. O. Smith]]) at the [[Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory]] at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT) to research rocket-assisted take-off of aircraft. This JATO research was the first rocket research to receive financial assistance from the U.S. government since World War I when [[Robert H. Goddard]] had an Army contract to develop solid fuel rocket weapons.<ref>{{cite web 
| url=http://www.olats.org/OLATS/pionniers/memoir1.shtml 
| title=Memoir on the GALCIT Rocket Research Project 
| last=Malina 
| first=Frank J. 
| publisher=l'Observatoire Leonardo pour les Arts et les Techno-Sciences 
| year=1967 
| access-date=17 August 2008 
| archive-date=5 February 2012 
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205093959/http://www.olats.org/OLATS/pionniers/memoir1.shtml 
| url-status=dead 
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web 
| url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4406/chap2.html 
| title=Orders of Magnitude – A History of the NACA and NASA, 1915–1990, Ch. 2 
| publisher=[[NASA]] 
| year=1989
}}</ref><ref name=Lehman>{{cite book |last1=Lehman |first1=Milton |title=Robert H. Goddard |date=1988 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-0-306-80331-4 |pages=91–95 }}</ref> 
In late 1941 von Kármán and his team attached several 50-pound thrust, solid fuel [[Aerojet]] JATOs to a light Ercoupe plane, and Army Captain [[Homer Boushey]] took off on test runs. On the last run they removed the propeller, attached six JATO units under the wings, and Boushey was thrust into the air for a short flight, the first American to fly by rocket power only. Both armed services used solid fuel JATO during the war.<ref name=Lehman/>{{rp|329}}

==Post WWII==
{{Full citations needed|section|date=November 2023}}
[[File:JATO takeoff from snow, Hercules,109th Airlift Wing.ogv|thumb|right|[[LC-130]] cargo plane RATO takeoff from snow]]

After [[World War II]] JATO was often used to overcome the poor thrust of early [[jet engine]]s at low speeds or for assisting heavily loaded aircraft to take off.  For example, the propeller engined [[Avro Shackleton]], when heavily laden with fuel for long maritime surveillance flights, relied on [[Armstrong Siddeley Viper]] turbojets for takeoff.

The world's first [[jet airliner]], the [[de Havilland DH 106 Comet]], included a design provision to carry two [[hydrogen peroxide]]–powered [[de Havilland Sprite]] booster rockets intended to be installed for "[[hot and high]]" conditions from airports such as Khartoum and Nairobi.<ref name = 'popmech 149'>{{cite journal |last1=Cookman |first1=Aubery O. Jr |url={{GBurl|6NkDAAAAMBAJ|p=149}} |title=Commute by Jet |journal=Popular Mechanics |volume=93 |issue=4 |date=April 1950 |pages=149–152 }}</ref><ref name = 'francis 98-102'>Francis 1950, pp. 98–102.{{full|date=January 2025}}</ref> These were tested on thirty flights, but the [[de Havilland Ghost]] jet engines alone were considered powerful enough and some airlines concluded that rocket motors were impractical.<ref name="Birtles p. 125">Birtles 1970, p. 125.{{full|date=January 2025}}</ref> Nevertheless, Sprite fittings were retained on production Comet 1s but were rendered unnecessary with subsequent engine upgrades.<ref>Gunn 1987, p. 269.{{full|date=January 2025}}</ref>

In the late 1950s, [[zero-length launch]] experimental programs for launching fighter aircraft were carried out by the [[United States Air Force]], the [[German Air Force]] and the [[Soviet Air Forces]] using high-thrust, short-burn duration booster designs of similar appearance and function. The USAF used a modified [[Republic F-84]], designated EF-84G, which used the [[MGM-1 Matador]] cruise missile's Aerojet General–designed, 240&nbsp;kN (26 short ton) thrust-level solid fuel booster of two second thrust duration. The Soviet VVS used a modified [[MiG-19]] fighter, designated SM-30, launched from a special launcher, and using a nearly identical solid-fueled rocket booster design to that of the EF-84G, but of a much more powerful, 600&nbsp;kN (64 short ton) thrust level. The [[F-100 Super Sabre|F-100]] and [[F-104 Starfighter|F-104]] were also used for zero-length launch experiments, with similarly powerful drop-away booster units to the Soviets' SM-30 experiments.<ref>{{cite web |last=Goebel |first=Greg |date=1 May 2012 |title=The Zero-Length Launch Fighter |url=http://www.vectorsite.net/avzel.html |publisher=Greg Goebel / In The Public Domain |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120422093446/http://www.vectorsite.net:80/avzel.html |archive-date=22 April 2012}}</ref>

Also in the 1950s the JATO Junior was an attempt by Aerojet Engineering to introduce smaller JATO units to small commercial aircraft, but was blocked by the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics.  Aerojet claimed that the smaller JATO bottle, delivering 250 pounds of thrust for 12 seconds could help a light private plane, that normally requires almost {{cvt|900|ft|m}} of runway to clear a {{cvt|50|ft|m}} high obstacle, could do the same with {{cvt|300|ft|m}} of runway with a JATO Jr unit.<ref>{{cite journal |url={{GBurl|ANkDAAAAMBAJ|p=163}} |title='Baby' Jet Unit Boosts Light Plane into Air |journal=Popular Mechanics |volume=93 |issue=2 |date=February 1950 |page=163 }}</ref> JATO Junior bottles mounted to the engine nacelles were briefly offered as a factory option on the [[Beechcraft Twin Bonanza]]; they were promoted not as a takeoff aid, but rather as a means to extend glide distance during a [[forced landing]] in unfavorable terrain. However, it is not known whether the bottles were ever actually installed on a production Twin Bonanza or used in any instance other than factory test flights.<ref name=eaa12-22>{{cite magazine |last=Caldwell |first=Kris |date=December 2022 |title=Beech D50C Twin Bonanza |url=https://sportaviation.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?m=53731&i=767519&p=1&ver=html5 |url-access=subscription |magazine=EAA Sport Aviation |location=Oshkosh, Wisconsin |publisher=[[Experimental Aircraft Association]] |access-date=January 20, 2023 |pages=34–36}}</ref>

The [[Boeing 727]] had provision for Aerojet JATO assist for use in "hot and high" conditions, particularly at [[Mexico City International Airport|Mexico City]] and [[El Alto International Airport|La Paz]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.boeing-727.com/Data/type%20cert/typecert200ser.html |title=Type Certification Data 727-200 Series |publisher=Boeing-727.com |date= |accessdate=20 March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tailsthroughtime.com/2010/04/ive-always-had-soft-spot-for-boeing-727.html |title=Tails Through Time: The Boeing 727 JATO Option |access-date=27 April 2017 |archive-date=1 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201211111/http://www.tailsthroughtime.com/2010/04/ive-always-had-soft-spot-for-boeing-727.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> A JATO option was available for the [[Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner]] to increase take-off weight while maintaining one-engine inoperative climb requirements.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}

In late 1980 the United States military operation plan [[Operation Credible Sport]] was intended to rescue hostages held by Iran using [[C-130]] cargo planes modified with rocket engines to enable a very short take off and landing. The plan was canceled after an accident occurred during a test landing when the forward-facing JATO units designed to slow the aircraft fired before the downward-facing units (designed to cushion the landing) did, causing the aircraft to crash-land.

JATO became largely unnecessary as the take-off thrust of jet engines improved and is now rarely used even when operating heavily laden from short runways or in "hot and high" conditions.{{citation needed|date=April 2018}} It is occasionally used in exceptional circumstances, on specially equipped, mostly military, aircraft.<ref>{{cite journal |url={{GBurl|biYDAAAAMBAJ|p=150}} |title=Booster Kick Off Civilian Planes |journal=Popular Science |volume=166 |issue=6 |date=June 1955 |page=150 }}</ref>

==Urban legend==
The [[JATO Rocket Car]] is an [[urban legend]] that relates the story of a car equipped with JATO units that is later found smashed into a mountainside. This story is often given as an example of a [[Darwin Awards|Darwin Award]]; it appears to be apocryphal, with no basis in fact.<ref>{{cite web 
  |url=http://www.snopes.com/autos/dream/jato.asp 
  |title=Carmageddon 
  |publisher=snopes.com
}}</ref>

The legend has been examined several times on the [[Discovery Channel]] show ''[[MythBusters]]''. For the first attempt, in a 2003 pilot episode, the crew replicated the scene and the thrust of the JATO with some commercially available amateur rocket motors. The car did go very fast, outrunning the chase helicopter, but nowhere near the 300&nbsp;mph (500&nbsp;km/h) reported in the original story, and failed to become airborne. The myth was revisited in 2007, using a different configuration of rockets in an attempt to make the car fly; it exploded before reaching the end of its launch ramp. The myth was again revisited in 2013 in the 1st episode of ''Mythbusters'' Season 12, as a celebration of their 10th year on the air.

A JATO-equipped 1958 [[Dodge Coronet#Fourth generation (1957–1959)|Dodge Coronet]] car on the [[El Mirage Lake|El Mirage dry lake]] was used for a TV advertisement to demonstrate the power of their "total contact" brakes. This was broadcast during ''[[The Lawrence Welk Show]]'' in the late 1950s.
<ref>{{YouTube|ZGEjFh-GCUo|title=Dodge presents The Lawrence Welk Show}}, segment begins at 30:00</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery mode="packed">
File:C-130T Hercules Blue Angels.jpg|The US Navy's [[Blue Angels]] [[C-130 Hercules]] "Fat Albert" using JATO during takeoff
File:US Navy 040206-N-9222M-001 One of five BQM-74 test drones launches from the amphibious assault ship USS Essex's (LHD 2) flight deck during a missile firing exercise.jpg|[[BQM-74E Chukar]] target drone using JATO
File:Valkyrie launch 201209-F-UT482-9117.jpg|[[Zero-length launch]]: [[Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie|XQ-58 Valkyrie]] taking off from [[Laguna Army Airfield]].
File:Jato3.jpg|[[Swiss Air Force]]'s [[Dassault Mirage III]]s in [[Payerne]]
File:Rocket Engine BS605-001.JPG|[[Bristol Siddeley 605|BS.605]] as used by the [[Blackburn Buccaneer#Variants|Buccaneer S.50]]
File:JATO Bottle.jpg|A RATO bottle
File:Lockheed P2V-3C Neptune takes off from USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42) on 2 July 1951 (80-G-629296).jpg|A [[Lockheed P-2 Neptune]] launches from the aircraft carrier {{USS|Franklin D. Roosevelt|CV-42}}, 2 July 1951.
File:Boeing B-47B rocket-assisted take off on April 15, 1954 061024-F-1234S-011.jpg|A rocket-assisted [[Boeing B-47]]B takeoff.
File:An airplane taking off with the aid of 330 horsepower jet-assisted unit in about half the normal run. - NARA - 295602.tif|A [[Grumman TBF Avenger]] torpedo bomber taking off with the aid of {{convert|330|hp|kW}} jet-assisted unit in about half the normal run.
File:F-104 with rocket booster.JPG|[[Lockheed F-104 Starfighter|F-104G]] with an experimental [[Zero-length launch|ZELL]] rocket booster at [[RAF Gatow|Gatow]].
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Zero-length launch]]
* [[CAM ship]]

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons|JATO}}
* [http://www.erichwarsitz.com Video (Archive) of the Heinkel He 111 fitted with Walter's rocket boosters]
* {{cite journal |url={{GBurl|TCEDAAAAMBAJ|p=74}} |title=Birth of JATO |journal=Popular Science |volume=149 |issue=1 |date=July 1946 |pages=74–75 }}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7LErwBNobU Boeing 727 using JATO] on YouTube
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKCl3lfAx1Q C-130 Lockheed Hercules] JATO on YouTube

{{Types of take-off and landing}}

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[[Category:JATO| ]]
[[Category:Types of take-off and landing]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]