Douglas A-20 Havoc rocket-assisted takeoff

For this #ThrowbackThursday our historians take us back to April of 1942 when testers, at what was then the Muroc Bombing and Gunnery Range, lit-up the back end of a Douglas A-20A Havoc. In 1942 a Douglas A-20 Havoc roared into the air over Rogers Dry Lake in the first rocket-assisted takeoff. A year later the Aerojet 25-AL-1000 become the first operational JATO, a concept still used today on the C-130 to facilitate resupply of Antarctic research stations. But these tests were only the beginning of rocket testing at Edwards. Personnel from the Power Plant Branch at Muroc, working with scientists from Cal Tech, planned a larger Rocket Engine Test Site later constructed atop nearby Leuhman Ridge, now part of the Air Force Research Lab. #TBT #EdwardsAFB