Sea Fury/Attacker RATOG

Nope.. you’ve completely lost me on that one. :confused:

Aha,Mr Carrich I presume.

I do believe it’s you and your side kick,Pete Forster,in this matter
of a new Attacker for Fs that I’m asking the above questions
for!!!:rolleyes:

Mark:cool:

Mark, i can’t answer any of your specific questions but i do have a copy of the pilots notes for the Attacker showing the position of the master switch, jettison switch and firing pushbutton for the R.A.T.O.G. If you need copies i will try and post some pics up.?!

Rob.

I meant ‘bottles’ for the shape of the individual RATOG rockets.
JATO seems to be a very broad name that covers liquid and solid fuelled rockets (still referred to as bottles) that the Americans used.

RATOG vs JATO

I think the “bottles” you refer to were JATO Bottles – Jet Assisted Take Off as opposed to the Rocket Assisted Take Off Ground – or RATOG rockets.

The bottles were replenishable and re-usable whereas the rockets were not – they just unbolted them and attached some new ones. I have a hunch that the bottles allowed zero-length-launch, due to higher thrust, hence the absence of “Ground” at the end of the title.

The Americans made more use of JATO although, like the RATOG, once they were lit they were unstoppable. The rockets were just tubes whereas the bottles were just that, and looked like it.

I am unaware of the type of fuel used in the bottles.

Any “Experts” here who can enlighten us further?

Anon.

Be interesting to see if anyone has experience of RATOG fitted to Attackers, I know the aircraft had provision for it, but have never found reference to it actually being used, or even fitted. One appeared in a Farnborough static with the RATOG bottles but they were displayed detached from the Attacker.
Apart from the PV Meteor, it seems to have been limited to prop types, Seafires, Sea Furys, Wyverns, Seagull etc.

Ratog

I think the RATOG rockets were a one-shot, solid fuel, disposable type. Probably cordite filled.

Just like the space shuttle boosters – once lit, you can’t turn ’em off.

In the case of RATOG rockets, they burn out in a few seconds but the acceleration must be phenomenal.

Anon.