Assisted take-off

In modern systems fitted on aircraft carriers, a piston, known as a shuttle, is propelled down a long cylinder under steam pressure.

The aircraft is attached to the shuttle using a tow bar or launch bar mounted to the nose landing gear (an older system used a steel cable called a catapult bridle; the forward ramps on older carrier bows were used to catch these cables), and is flung off the deck at about 15 knots above minimum flying speed, achieved by the catapult in a four-second run.

The four J-47 turbojet engines on the B-36 were not considered JATO systems; they were an integral part of the aircraft's propulsion, and were used during takeoff, climb, and cruise at altitude.

In a Cold War context, RATO and JATO bottles were seen as a way for fighter aircraft to use the undamaged sections of runways of airfields which had been attacked.

In the interwar years, in order to achieve long ranges with the technology of the time, trials were undertaken with floatplanes piggy-backed atop flying boats.

With the floatplane carried part of the way to its destination and freed from having to use any of its own fuel in the initial climb, these combinations could deliver light but time-critical cargos faster and farther than a single individual aircraft (for example the Short Mayo Composite).