The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Does anyone have any pictures or information about the Rocket Assisted Takeoff Gear used on the Swordfish MK III?

I've got the Revell/Matchbox kit and one of the decal options is for an 838 NAS aircraft used in trials (possibly of the Lily floating airstrip).

Cheers

Andrew

You can find a few images via Google. I'll have a look through my refs later and see if I have more details - possibly the Squadron Swordfish in Action has drawings.

Thanks John, the images I found don't really show the RATOG gear clearly. There are some in the Imperial War Museum Archive, but not on the Internet.

Cheers

Andrew

Sorry, Andrew, the few images I have are pretty indistinct. The Squadron book didn't have a drawing.
I do know it doesn't look at all like the JATO bottles I've seen, it seems to be longer and of smaller diameter, with not as obvious a nozzle -- but that's just an impression.
I have one picture of one flying off the Lily, but it isn't very informative.

I've got a copy of 'Fleet Air Arm in Camera' somewhere that has a few shots of the Lily floating strip with a Swordfish parked on it, I'll have a dig and see if it has any useful images of the RATO gear.

Regards

Tom

TomW wrote:I've got a copy of 'Fleet Air Arm in Camera' somewhere that has a few shots of the Lily floating strip with a Swordfish parked on it, I'll have a dig and see if it has any useful images of the RATO gear.

Regards

Tom

Great , thanks Tom!

Have you seen this link? http://tmwcf.forumcircle.com/viewtopic.php?p=2459