Hard runways in WWII (1 Viewer)

[BiffF15]

The BUFFs I serviced as a firefighter, doing standbys for MITOs, were lifting off not far past the midway-point of our 11,000' runway at Carswell. My truck was at the midpoint of the runways/taxiways there and they were lifting off not very far past me at all, perhaps 7,000' rollout all told?

I don't know what engines they had. 7th BW flew B-52H models when I was there. Smoky as hell, fo' sho. Peeling off left and right ASAP, too.

Not Carswell but Minot AFB, but you can see how much runway is underneath them at liftoff, these guys were bucking for altitude.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6VFeDJNNzw&t=4s

Thump,

I would think if they (B-52s) were airborne at the 7k they were not heavily loaded. Those runways were built for worst case max effort hot day take offs. That is probably what drove the original length.

While F-16s can take off in 5-6k it eats up even more on landing. I think their min runway length is in the 7-8k range when operating clean. The F15 min length was 1K less in the clean configuration and could be waived lower by the OG/CC. We both required cables at least one end of the field.

Cheers,
Biff