Did anything other than a Shackleton have JATO ?

Those who operated the aircraft (and include the various fitters and mechanics as well as the flight crew) affectionately referred to the Shackleton as a 'collection of parts flying in formation'. The RATO fitting to which you refer was one of a series of experiments carried out during an unsually slow week at the Shackleton's main operating base at RAF St Mawgam in Cornwall which covered the south west approaches and the Bay of Biscay.

The following account came to me by means I'd rather not have to explain.

The RATO units were part of an assignment of spares destined for USAF use in Germany. Due to a navigational error, the pilot of a USAF Starlifter cargo aircraft mistook the Redruth bypass (which was still under construction at the time) for the main runway at RAF Mildenhall. Mildenhall was (and still is) the American forces' main distribution and logistics base in Europe and this navigational error can only be excused by the huge volume of liquor which accompanied the RATO shipment. The inebriated (and barely lucid) USAF pilot attempted to land on the unmade section of the A38 Redruth bypass. In this effort he was aided by yet another mix-up.

The Camborne and Redruth Express Taxi service was making use of some recently-acquired second hand radio telephony equipment to communicate with their fleet of taxis. The proprietors of the firm were well aware that this equipment had been sourced from an Army surplus sale but were not aware that it was still tuned to the set of channels used by military air traffic control agencies. The resulting confusion was inevitable as the despatcher of the Camborne and Redruth Taxi service engaged with the laconically drawling pilot of the Starlifter. In her attempt to guide what she thought was a seven seater minibus to the brass band club in St Keverne she persuaded the Starlifter's pilot to overshoot the unsurfaced A38, take a right over Goonhilly Down Earth Station (and the array of microwave satellite receivers operated by British Telecom) and line up on the runway at the Royal Naval Air Station at Culdrose. Confused by the RT message 'Park up by the front of the club and ask for Kevin the doorman' the USAF pilot realised that something was amiss, overshot the RNAS Culdrose runway and landed at St Mawgam. When the Starlifter drew to a halt, the pilot made his egress from the aircraft and ran off into the darkness, apparently to prepare his excuses for such a grossly negligent pieces of flying and to sober up.

The cargo of the aircraft was promptly appropriated by the staff of the RAF station who, as mentioned above, set about investigating what possibilites this windfall might afford. After starting on the liquor, it wasn't long before the possibilities offered by the RATO units began to appeal to their sense of playfulness. These units are solid fuel rocket motors, each about the size of two domestic dustbins. They are not equipped with any form of guidance system and have no aerodynamic qualities worth mentioning. It was in the brief of their designers to produce only thrust and to rely on the vehicle to which they are attached (firmly) to look after the details of the flight. The first trial, to see if they could get one to work, was a success. A single RATO was attached to the shell of a Blenheim night fighter which adorned the space at the front of the station. Two forklift trucks were employed to move the shell of the Blenheim to the far side of St Mawgam airfield where the RATO was attached and fired. Lacking a pilot to operate the flight controls (That the aircraft lacked a pilot demonstrates perhaps the only shred of wisdom or common sense to accompany this prank) the Blenheim first lifted into the air then was seen to execute a series of rolls leaving a growing spiral smoke trail over Falmouth bay, apparently heading for Brittany at an ever-increasing speed and height. After six or seven seconds of flight, the unlikely combination of rocket and worn-out WWII airframe approached Mach I and the over-stressed airframe failed. The wings and tail section were seen to fall into the sea while the remainder of the airframe, still attached to the still-burning rocket straightened out from its wildy-corkscrewing path and went straight up. Where it came down is not recorded. If it did in fact come down, which is debatable since it may very well have exceeded the Earth's escape velocity. See Appendix A for a computation which supports this argument.

Exhilirated and encouraged by the success of this trial and the discovery of a pallet of Jim Beam sour mash bourbon, the RAF station maintenance crew looked for a more promising airframe with which they could experiment. The next obvious choice turned out to be one of the Shackletons with which the base was equipped. The one chosen was close to exceeding its rated airframe hours and had already been stripped of all equipment prior to its final flight to RAF St Athan in South Wales where it was to be broken up. The prevailing opinion was that it woudn't be missed and was taking up parking space (which was at a premium on the tiny St Mawgam field.) In the best traditions of the RAF a bold solution was adopted, to fix six RATO units to the Shackleton's wing pylons. By a strange coincidence the mounting points for the RATO packs are a perfect fit so the work of lifting and attaching the packs to the airframe was soon completed. It was only after the packs had ben ignited and the shower of sparks and smoke began to emerge that an elementry mistake had been made. The three starboard-mounted RATO packs had been mounted facing forward but the three on the port wing were blasting smoke and sparks forward, in the wrong direction. As a result of this formidable but asymmetric thrust, the Shackleton started to rotate about a vertical axis at an ever-increasing rate. The effect on the RAF crew can be described as 'sobering'. They watched in horror as the aircraft completed its first revolution, it second and third, wondering where it would end.

At this point something altogether strange happened, on what was becoming an exceptional afternoon. The starboard wing, which was being driven into the air, began to lift as might have been expected. The port wing, which was being driven backwards into the air, began to lift as well. It seemed the leading-edge slat had been deployed perhaps by the vibration or by aerodynamic effects and the trailing edge flap had been forced down by the draft. Accurate observation of these effects was not reported due to the volume of smoke and because every participant in this folly was attempting to put as much space between themselves and the unfolding disaster. What is known is obtained by local eyewitnesses who, alerted by the noise, report seeing a twisting column of smoke rising like a tornado in reverse which climbed into the sky getting quieter and quieter.

No wreckage from the Shackleton was ever reported falling to the earth.