Doolittle's Whiffers!?!?

[Cliffy B]

You can always scratch some RATO bottles out of some balsa wood dowel rods.  Michael's has a nice selection of balsa wood of various sizes and shapes.  Best part is a dowel rod thin enough for the bottles is probably around 3 feet long and less than $1 so you'll have plenty to experiment with.  If you want a rounded nose you could sculpt one out of some putty or cannibalize a missile body.

[Acree]

Good point Cliffy, should be a pretty easy scratch job.  How 'bout pics?  Anybody point me to a closeup of a 1942-era US-built RATO bottle?

Cheers,
Chuck

[sequoiaranger]

US rocketry wizard Goddard helped the Navy design a RATO unit for a patrol plane and first used it in November of 1942. So the US may have been a little behind world development, but that can be erased, for a whif, with the stroke of a pen. I couldn't find any pics on the Internet, but I would suspect the RATO units would be simple and look like an oxygen bottle with a conical nozzle (big end away from bottle) at one end.

[Acree]

Thanks, SR.  I agree abut your description.  I did find one picture from a 1/72 scale model of a JB-2 Loon which was fitted with four RATO units on the launch trolley.  I'm thinking a 3' x just under 1' capsule shape with the conical nozzle on one end.  As far as a mount, I'm thinking about mounting one above each wingroot.  I know I've seen a photo of some airplane from  the WWII era with RATO mounted that way (anyone remember?).

Cheers,
Chuck

[sideshowbob9]

I know I've seen a pic of a ski equipped R4D (C-117?) with RATO but can't remember where. After a brief search, I've found a pic of an F-84 with RATO but that's a little late.

Edit: Found it!  

http://www.vaq34.com/vxe6/r4d99853jatotakeoff_1.jpg
http://www.vaq34.com/vxe6/r4dbobr4djato.jpg

[Acree]

Thanks Bob.  i may do an under-fuselage mount like the R4D, but the shape of the Maryland fuselage (and the location of the gunner) make that somewhat problematic.  I remember where I saw the over-the-wing-root mount, though: it was a Seafire installation (see link: http://www.pewteraircraft.com/RAF/SEAFIRE%2047/Seafire%2047.htm).  I'm leaning to the over-wing-root mount, but a single bottle each side.

Cheers,
Chuck

[jcf]

Ercoupe JATO test videos

http://www.vimeo.com/870933

http://www.vimeo.com/875011

[Tophe]

Concerning range, what-if imagination 1940 would have been enough to cary more fuel
Thanks to http://www.daveswarbirds.com/usplanes/backdoor.htm here is the A-22Z Twin-Maryland with double range:

[Acree]

Thanks for posting the videos joncarrfarrelly!  There was also one of an A-20A test with liquid rocket units mounted in the tails of the engine nacelles.  Interestingly, that test was going on at the exact same time as the Doolittle raid!  That could also work for the Maryland, but I think I'll stick with my over-the-wing-root plan because it is more obvious. 

Cheers,
Chuck

[sequoiaranger]

I spoke with General (ret.) Cardenas last week. He was Chuck Yeager's boss on the X-1 project (flew the mother plane for the sound-barrier breaking), test-flew the Ar-234 and Me-262, and test-flew the XB49 Flying Wing and some 60 other aircraft. He also did a lot of work "perfecting" assisted take-off. He said that JATO units had an "on" switch, but not an "off" switch, so any malfunction or mere power differential between the two units could seriously affect the plane with asymmetric thrust. He said he took off in an A-20 with JATO units in the back of each nacelle, and one of them cut out almost immediately. The force of the other one spun him around like a top (this at low level, too)--he said he was lucky to survive. After that, JATO units were put only in the fuselage so that the thrust, or lack of, would be directed more along the centerline where their effects were more controllable.

as a PS--General Cardenas firmly believes that Yeager was NOT the first pilot through the sound barrier, but rather George Welsh in an F-86 (in a dive). There is no proof, and the X-1 has the DATA to prove it, and it was in level flight, so Yeager's flight is credited with being the first.


Acree---I think the wing-root idea is better than the nacelle for the above reasons. Might want to have some scorch-proofing behind the thing, though, as the flames from JATO units are about 15-20 feet long. If you remember, planes such as the B-47 had JATO units in the rear fuselage pointed slightly down and slightly away from the aircraft---the vector force of the units was only slightly diminished from the aircraft's actual thrustline, and nasty burns to the airframe were avoided.