Jet-assisted take-off (JATO) research, 1940s. Engineer working on an early form of rocket aircraft, a jet-assisted take-off (JATO) unit, at the high-pressure combustion facility of NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), the precursor to NASA. The research included static firing of a nitric acid aniline rocket, and a permanganate peroxide rocket set-up. Photographed in 1946, at NACA's Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory at what is now the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.