The fitting of RATO pods to the Whitley has come up in a recent thread, and as I just happen to have some supporting evidence I thought it only fair to share.
The pods slung underneath the Whitley’s wing are indeed rocket pods to assist take off. They were designed and built by RAE at Farnborough and the following is a brief description of them from the report RAE AERO 1838 dated July 43.
2,2 Rocket container
A standard container has been designed by Designs Dept RAE to take 24 3 inch rockets. This container is suitable for giving rocket assistance to bombers at weights of 30,000 lb to 80,000 lb, and to the Hamilcar glider.
Photographs of the loaded container installed in the Hamilcar are given in Fig. 2, It consists of a cylinder 25 inches diameter and 4 f t 3.3/4 in, long-of welded steel construction. The rockets are loaded by passing them through a spectacle plate. drilled with 24 3.1/4 in. holes at the rear end and are secured to the front- bulkhead each with a single bolt. The bulkhead consists of a circular plate to which five vertical webs are welded. These webs transfer the thrust to the top of the shell at the forward end, whence the thrust is taken on to the aircraft . An attachment point is provided on the rear of the shell at the top, and struts may be attached at the front and/or rear bulkhead to take the loads due to the (necessarily) offset rocket
thrust ,
The rockets were the standard 3 inch RP motors without the cruciform tail and warhead, and were fired sequentially for sustained boost rather than all at once in one big (but short) kick. When fired on take off it looked like this.
[ATTACH]184064[/ATTACH]
Apart from the Whitley and the Hamilcar mentioned above these pods were also tried on the Horsa and its this installation illustated here.
[ATTACH]184065[/ATTACH]
Anyone interested in more ?
By: diamant - 23rd June 2010 at 02:30
Hi
many thanks for the pictures and information about the Hostpur and Horsa with RATOG.
I wonder if you have a photo showing this type of instalation in a Hamilcar.
Thanks in advance
Kind regards
Santiago
By: hindenburg - 23rd April 2010 at 08:51
The book was called `Air Crash,The clues in the wreckage` by Fred Jones,one on ebay now.
By: hindenburg - 23rd April 2010 at 08:37
I did have a book about air crash investigation with a Vulcan breaking up in flight on the cover.One of the wartime investigations was a Stirling which broke up in mid-air( I think over Exmoor) that was fitted with RATO and there were really nice images of it assembled from bits as part of the investigation and the RATO rockets.Someone is bound to have the book on the forum,sadly, lent mine to someone who never returned it.
By: Arabella-Cox - 22nd April 2010 at 22:34
I only have the single RAE report (Halifax and Hamilcar) but the following is part of the Report’s references.
4 Ewans & Yates Rocket-assisted take-off tests on a Horsa.
RAE Technical Note No Aero 1137(Flight)
February, 1943
5 Hufton, Ewans Rocket-assisted take-off tests on a Stirling.
And Warren BA Dept’l Note FS No 113
November 1941
6 Ewans & Warren Rocket-assisted take-off tests on a Fulmar.
RAE Technical Note No Aero 1022 (Flight)
August 1942
7 Ewans Rocket-assisted take-off tests on a Whitley towing a Horsa
RAE Technical Note No Aero 1229 (Flight)
July 1945
So somewhere there must be pictures of a Stirling with RATO 😮 I have evidence of rockets on three glider types Horsa, Hamilcar and as this picture shows Hotspur
[ATTACH]184071[/ATTACH]
Sorry for the quality but they did like to illustrate their reports with stills from grainy cine film like this, which is a pity as the Hotspur is interesting – Late Mk I or very early Mk II.
As a glider/tug combination only one would have the rockets fitted. Again from the Hamilcar report here is the description of the method of operation.
The take-off with the tug and glider is begun in the normal way.
When a speed of about 70 m.p.h. has been reached the glider pilot fires the rockets; they will continue firing until a height of about 100 f t. has been reached. At 500 ft the containers may be jettisoned, and will be landed by parachute for re-use. On operational use the glider undercarriage will also be dropped by parachute,
However some of the tests I would have like to have seen such as this one;
A ground run was then made firing the full number of rockets in pairs at 1.2 seconds tine interval. The test was made without the use of a tug; the glider was started from rest, and at the light weight (30,000 lb + rocket gear) nearly attained take-off speed.
Unfortunately the last sentance of the report says it all;
Take-off assistance of gliders by rockets has now been cancelled
as a service requirement, and no further work is proposed.
Looking at this pod I can’t help thinking that if the rockets had warheads and folding fins, and could exit the front of the pod when fired, then a Whitley could have been one mean anti-tank / anti-shipping aircraft.
1 Whitley with 48 RPs = 6 Typhoons
By: pagen01 - 22nd April 2010 at 19:14
Yes please!
Was it ever applied to other RAF bombers types of the period aswel? The Germans seem to get all the credit for large aircraft RATO assistance of the war period, so I was amazed to see this mentioned in the other thread.
I assume the Horsa was still towed aloft, even with RATO? Tug AND glider with rockets and the potential problems with that power sounds like a recipe for disaster!
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April 22, 2010 at 6:45 pm