B-727 RATO Video
 

Run time 1:11.
YouTube - Boeing 727 Take Off With RATO

I think it was MIA where we were parked and I was doing a walk around on our 727 when I saw the 727 next to us. Mexicana I believe. Odd bulges at the base of the wing's trailing edge. So I saunter over to figure out what I am looking at. Sure enough.. the rockets. Didn't look as though they had ever been fired. No smudges on the fuselage. But definitely an attention getter.. much like the gravel kit on the 737. Unique.

I guess you kick them in at rotation.

Notice the tail skid strike on rotation?:eek:

CE

Braniff had some for Mexico City.

Yea, the tail strike is pretty obvious. Could he be hitting some kind of strike plate that was installed just for the test?

Lots of planes had rocket packs for engine out performance. I flew a Twin Beech that still had the humps on the engines for a RATO package. That would have been a wild ride. Rio had the rocket in the tail of a Metro go off taxiing out in Waco during the arming check and didn't even know it.

I know some mechs that fired one on a Metro (they had a shelf life) with the brakes off and it moved the airplane about ten feet :)