Vulcan R.A.T.O

[canberra kid]

I've been reading through the Avro Vulcan Illustrated parts catalogue, yes I know, but what can you do? And I came across this, I had no idea the Vulcan had or could have used R.A.T.O I've seen a photo of a Victor and a film of a Valiant, but never seen anything regarding it being fitted to the Vulcan.

John 

 

 

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

It was impressive enough to see four of them doing a scramble and I can only imagine what it would have been like with RATO!

Was it ever used other than in testing?

Richard

[canberra kid]

7 hours ago, Scimitar said:

It was impressive enough to see four of them doing a scramble and I can only imagine what it would have been like with RATO!

Was it ever used other than in testing?

Richard

Richard, apart from this in the AP I know nothing about it, I've never seen a photo film or drawing regarding the RATO fit on the Vulcan, if it was tested, which I guess it may have been, was it done in Australia? I was hoping some one here would know something more?

 

John 

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

John

Found this

:http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/279464-vulcan-rocketry.html

and this alludes to Spectre testing

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/record?catid=449391&catln=6

and this shows the switchery

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?64945-Vulcan-RATOG-use&p=1043286#post1043286

Richard

 

[71chally]

I have seen reference to XA889 carrying out RATO trials, but no pics of this - sadly

[canberra kid]

14 hours ago, Scimitar said:

John

Found this

:http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/279464-vulcan-rocketry.html

and this alludes to Spectre testing

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/record?catid=449391&catln=6

and this shows the switchery

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?64945-Vulcan-RATOG-use&p=1043286#post1043286

Richard

 

Thank you very much Richard, the national archives document sounds interesting!

John

[bentwaters81tfw]

Slightly aside to this, I had a conversation about 45 years ago with a chap who worked at Woodford on the tin triangle. The were doing trials with Blue Steel, and a rocket motor was fitted to a Vulcan in the tailcone. Presumably this was to help with escape from the blast even though the range of BS was 100 miles.

He told me they launched a dummy BS, then fired up the rocket: The Vulcan then overtook the BS easily. If you look at the Mach meter in a Vulcan, it goes up to Mach 1.3, even with a marker at 0.93. I assume the stresses did not help the airframe any, perhaps why it was not taken further.

[canberra kid]

19 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Slightly aside to this, I had a conversation about 45 years ago with a chap who worked at Woodford on the tin triangle. The were doing trials with Blue Steel, and a rocket motor was fitted to a Vulcan in the tailcone. Presumably this was to help with escape from the blast even though the range of BS was 100 miles.

He told me they launched a dummy BS, then fired up the rocket: The Vulcan then overtook the BS easily. If you look at the Mach meter in a Vulcan, it goes up to Mach 1.3, even with a marker at 0.93. I assume the stresses did not help the airframe any, perhaps why it was not taken further.

WOW! A bet was quite a ride! Interesting stuff, thanks.

 

John