spitfire with what fitted

[brewerjerry]

Hi All,

Found this any ideas what the contraption is, is it jato ?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18532986@N07/...57622637160081/

cheers

Jerry

[JohnT]

Hi All,

Found this any ideas what the contraption is, is it jato ?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18532986@N07/...57622637160081/

cheers

Jerry

Rocket Assisted Take Off installation perhaps?

[Super Aereo]

Seafire IIC MB307 fitted for RATOG trials, Farnborough early 1944.

[Prop Duster]

I agree with John T and Super Aereo;

RATO: Rocket Assisted Take Off

JATO: would be Jet-fuel Assisted take Off. Both are the same, with RATO being more specific.

HOWEVER could it just be a preparation for a Guy Falk's Day show?

Humm the possibility's are rife with promise

[Test Graham]

They can also be seen on photos of Seafire FR Mk.47s operating off Korea in 1950.

[Edgar]

Interesting to see how the rockets align with the edges of the elevators; in illustrations (and in the 1/32 Matchbox 22/24) the wingroots, of the 46/47, are wider than all other Spitfires/Seafires, and I have a theory that it was done to take the line of the rocket thrust away from the elevators; I haven't found any confirmation, yet, though.

Intersting (part 2) also, to see, even as late as 1944, that HF radios appear to have been still in use, judging by the mast-to-rudder aerial.

Edgar

[Super Aereo]

At least one of the Seafires used in the trials had badly damaged elevators because of the blast from the rockets (at some stage they were metal covered), so it is quite possible.

IIRC the FAA kept using HF radios for far longer than the RAF, and even the RAF used them for some time on second-line aircraft. Wartime Seafires were equipped with naval HF radio sets rather than with the VHF sets used on their "terrestrial" counterparts.