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 gliding flight. 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. Many rocket aircraft may be drop launched from transport planes, as take-off from ground may leave them with insufficient time to reach high altitudes. 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 use of heavy propellants and other practical difficulties of operating rockets, the majority of rocket planes have been built for experimental or research use, as interceptor fighters and space aircraft. History Background Peruvian polymath Pedro Paulet conceptualized the Avión Torpedo in 1902 – a liquid-propellant rocket-powered aircraft that featured a canopy fixed to a delta tiltwing – spending decades seeking donors for the aircraft while serving as a diplomat in Europe and Latin America. Paulet's concept of using liquid-propellant was decades ahead of rocket engineers at the time who utilized black powder as a propellant. Reports of Paulet's rocket aircraft concept first appeared in 1927 after Charles Lindbergh was the first to successfully fly an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. Paulet publicly criticized Austrian rocket pioneer Max Valier's proposal about a rocket-powered aircraft completing the journey faster using black powder, arguing that his liquid-propellant rocket aircraft from thirty years earlier would be a better option. Paulet would go on to visit the German rocket association Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR) and on March 15, 1928, Valier applauded Paulet's liquid-propelled rocket design in the VfR publication Die Rakete, saying the engine had "amazing power". In May 1928, Paulet was present to observe the demonstration of a rocket car of the Opel RAK program of Fritz von Opel and Max Valier, and after meeting with the German rocket enthusiasts. VfR