NOVEL MODE OF AIR TRAVEL

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 14928, 16 March 1949, Page 5

NOVEL MODE OF AIR TRAVEL

ROCKET-PROPELLED TAKE-OFF EXPERIMENTS FOUR-ENGINED BOMBERS "LEAP OFF" RUNWAYS Air travellers may before long find themselves rocket-propelled from airport runways like the 12 United States airman rescued from the Greenland ice-cap by this form of assisted take-off, writes Courtenay Edwards in the Overseas Mai''. The ski-equipped Dakota which landed on the Arctic ice to take off the marooned Americans could not have taken off again en her engines alone. There was not enough room to gain flying speed. So the pilot pressed an electric button to touch off rockets that had been attached to both sides, of the fuselage. With thi's extra boost the plane lumped off the ice with ease. The United States Air Force has been using JATO—jet assisted takeoff—for a long time now. Our own Royal Navy used a British version during the war to get heavily laden Seafires and Swordfish off the decks of escort carriers. They called it RATOG—rocket assisted take-off gear and the propellant was ccrdite. So far the air liners of the world have been suspicious of this device for increasing pay-load and cutting down take-off runs. They have been afraid that the noise and smoke of the rockets and' the p n ane's fast, steep-angle climb might scare passengers. Cuts Out Costs But many experts in England and America are convinced that in a few years all air liners on certain routes will be fitted with JATO or RATOG as a matter cf course. They will be a boon at airports where the air is so hot or so because of height above sea levelthat excessively long take-off runs are needed. Thi? cuts down payload ?nd can make a plane uneconomic--like the Tudors on the run to Johannesburg. Many ti'mes during the past two vears'peop'e passing the De Havilland aerodrome at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, have been amazed to see four-engined Lancasters virtually leap off the runway. . As makers of the Vampire jet fighter, De Havillands obviously have a'strong interest in the military application of RATOG. It might also be useful for then; four-jet, 500-m.p.h. Comet air liner, new taking shape at Hatfield in secrecy.