JATO (J-toe) or Jet Assisted Take Off is a quick way to get some altitude if you are faced with a short space or obstacles in your take off path. If you read the El Paso articles (Seaplane Story 3) you saw that they had to use JATO to get off that tiny lake.

The JATO containers were referred to as “bottles” (see picture 05a). They are actually solid-fueled rockets. They are not as big in diameter as a 5 gallon can but probably stand 50% taller than a can. On the P5M seaplane 2 bottles were mounted on the rear port hatch and 2 bottles were mounted on the starboard hatch. They were fired as pairs, the lower pair and the upper pair. When airborne and clear of the sea lanes, the bottles were jettisoned.

The most exciting JATO performance I saw was a demonstration piloted by our skipper, Commander “Hap” Hazard. I don’t know what the deal was but there were a lot of Captains and Admirals in the crowd. One of our planes had been stripped of the electronics gear and had a minimum gas load. The only people aboard were the pilot, co-pilot, and a senior mechanic.They started their take off run and almost immediately fired the JATO bottles and I’d swear that plane went almost straight up! You can imagine a fighter plane doing that but to see a giant seaplane was hard to believe.

The most exciting JATO run I was involved in was when we were on the way to Japan. We had flown from Hawaii to Kwajalein Atoll, spent the night, and now were ready to head for Midway Island. There was a small harbor formed by a coral reef that looked like it had been enhanced by man. We carried every ounce of gas we could get aboard and were really heavy. The sky was overcast and the sea was choppy. We started our take off run and at the appropriate time, the pilot fired the JATO bottles. We were rushing toward this coral reef but weren’t lifting off. The pilot finally had to abort. By the time we got more JATO bottles aboard, the sea had settled down a little and the pilot had a better feel for the weight and the conditions and we got airborne. That was the hairiest one I got to enjoy.

I was probably aboard for 10 or 15 JATO take offs and was always amazed at how much power you felt when the bottles ignited.

Dave Thomas
March 6, 2012, revised February 16, 2015 

When a squadron returned from deployment in WESTPAC, sailors were discharged or transferred and were replaced by new men. Training took place all day, every day. Flight crews were flying almost every day and sometimes flew two or more hops per day. The Navy tries to fit all the activities into a standard day that ends at 4:00 PM. That way everything can be secured and the single men can be ready to hit the mess hall on time. However, with all the training flights going on I was never sure what time my last flight would get in.

For a couple of years, we lived in Navy housing in Coronado that was located right on San Diego Bay. It might have been 10 or 15 yards from our building to the water’s edge. Looking east, we had a great view of the bay and the San Diego skyline behind it.

When the seaplanes landed they came in from the ocean, heading east, and crossed over the Silver Strand which is the name of the isthmus connecting the city of Imperial Beach, on the south, with the city of Coronado, on the north. In some places the Strand is only 200 or 300 yards wide and accommodates the highway and a strip of public beach and that’s it. After crossing the Strand the planes turn to port (north) and fly up the bay. At the point where the plane passes our apartment in Navy Housing, they were probably only 50 or 75 yards off shore. Pat knew the side number of my plane so she recognized it when we flew past. Sometimes we would be shooting touch-and-go landings and would go past the house over and over. Pat would sometimes sit out on the grass and wave when we went by. We were close enough that I could recognize her from the plane. I had a window (or port) beside my position at the radar and one time, as we flew past. I picked up a white rag that I used to clean the radar screen and waved it at the window as we went past Pat. She saw the rag and later that evening we were talking about it and she said “why don’t you wave that rag when you go past for the last time of the day and I’ll know when to start supper?” It sounded great to me so that’s what we did from then on. Of course, it didn’t last long. The novice pilots learned how to land  and take off and the whole training atmosphere evolved and the flights got longer. Pat and I had a good thing going while it lasted.

Dave Thomas
Revised February 16, 2015 

Two of the early seaplanes or “flying boats” used by the U.S. Navy were the PBY and the PBM. Then, from the early 1950’s through 1967 the Glenn L. Martin Company produced the P5M-1, P5M-2, and the Anti-Submarine Warfare version, the P5M-2S. When I joined VP-48 in June of 1958 they were flying the P5M-1 and had just returned two months previously from a 6 month deployment at Naval Air Station Iwakuni, Japan. Still flying the P5M-1, we deployed again to Iwakuni in April of 1959 for 6 months and after we returned we started taking delivery of the P5M-2’s. I don’t remember the details but after receiving just a couple of the -2’s we started receiving the P5M-2S, the “S” suffix meaning that the plane was equipped with the jazzy electronic gear of the new Anti-Submarine Warfare package. We had to obtain a “Secret” clearance just to work on the gear.

The first picture shows the difference between the appearance of the P5M-1 and P5M-2. On the “-1”, the horizontal stabilizer on the tail is down low, at the height of the fuselage. On the “-2”, they put the horizontal stabilizer at the top of the tail section and created that “flying tail” or T-tail” effect. Cool!

The second image is a spec. sheet. It says that the cruising speed was 150 knots but as I recall it was more like 140 knots. We didn’t move too fast.

The third picture was included to show the size of the aircraft. Also, notice the red rectangle above the tires on the port side and the green rectangle above the tires on the starboard side. Those are flotation chambers. After the plane is launched and is in the water, a crew member throws a lever, setting the wheels adrift and they are towed away from the aircraft. This plane can only take off and land on water.

That bulbous white nose is a radome housing a parabolic dish antenna that was at least 4 feet in diameter. I don’t remember exactly but I do remember that when working on the antenna I could bend a little at the waist and neck and could move clear around the front of the antenna. The radome must have been almost 6 feet at its maximum diameter.

Dave Thomas
February 29, 2012, revised February 16, 2015