Description

A small ERCO Ercoupe airplane takes off from a rural runway with the assistance of jet thrust acceleration, the first take off of its kind. Theodore von Karman created the technology.

Original caption (recto): "First take off with jet thrust acceleration on Ercoupe. August 12, 1941".

Original caption (verso): "The Jet-Age is Launched as the first take-off is made of the Ercoupe aircraft with jet thrust acceleration at March Field, (Riverside, CA) on August 12, 1941. Capt. Homer Boushey, US Air Corps pilot was at the controls. This flight proved the value of jet-assisted takeoff (JATO) as an auxiliary to piston-engine propulsion and, moreover, the value of slow-burning solid rock propellants.

The Ercoupe Model 415-C, a two-seat cabin light monoplane (the lightest aircraft of its time), was manufactured by the Engineering & Research Corporation, Riverdale, Maryland, in 1947. With 30 foot wing span and a length of 20 feet 9 inches, the aircraft cruised at 110 miles per hour and had a maximum speed of 127 miles per hour. The aircraft was introduced on the market in 1940, but production ceased when American entered World War II, as the company was fully engaged in defense contracts.

The JATO feasibility report, co-written by Theodore von Karman, is titled 'The Rocket Motor and Its Applications as an Auxiliary to the Power Plants of Convential Aircraft.' Although the study made this flight possible, it was not written for military application. However, one General Henry H. 'Hap' Arnold, chief of the Army Air Corps, reviewed the report he realized potential defense applications of this technology.

The general invited von Karman to attend a Committee of Air Corps Research at the National Academy of Sciences in 1938. This was followed by von Karman's futuristic report on science and military research, 'New Horizons,' and, subsequently, the evolution of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board."

Original credit line: USAF (United States Air Force).