Rocketplane

A rocket-powered aircraft or rocket plane is an aircraft that uses a rocket engine for propulsion, sometimes in addition to airbreathing jet engines. Rocket planes can achieve much higher speeds than similarly sized jet aircraft, but typically for at most a few minutes of powered operation, followed by a glide. Unhindered by the need for oxygen from the atmosphere, they are suitable for very high-altitude flight. They are also capable of delivering much higher acceleration and shorter takeoffs.

Rockets have been used simply to assist the main propulsion in the form of jet assisted take off (JATO) also known as rocket assisted take off (RATO or RATOG). Not all rocket planes are of the conventional takeoff like "normal" aircraft. Some types have been air-launched from another plane, while other types have taken off vertically - nose in the air and tail to the ground ("tail-sitters").

Because of the heavy propellant use and the various practical difficulties of operating rockets, the majority of rocket planes have been built for experimental use, as interceptor fighters and space aircraft.

Rocket-powered flight was pioneered in Germany. The first aircraft to fly under rocket power was the Lippisch Ente, in 1928. The Ente had previously been flown as a glider. The next year, in 1929, the Opel RAK.1 became the first purpose-built rocket plane to fly.

The Heinkel He 176 was the world’s first aircraft to be propelled solely by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, making its first powered flight on 20 June 1939 with Erich Warsitz at the controls.

The first rocket plane ever to be mass-produced was the Messerschmitt Me 163 interceptor in 1944, one of several German World War II attempts at rocket-powered aircraft. The Bachem Ba 349 "Natter" vertical takeoff manned rocket interceptor aircraft flew in prototype form. Projects which never even reached the prototype stage include the Zeppelin Rammer, the Fliegende Panzerfaust and the Focke-Wulf Volksjäger.

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