Altus AFB is near Lawton/Fort Sill. It has a 13,000 foot runway. Not debunking the debunk, just sayin...
if this continues like it does then in a certain amount of years our soil and water will be polluted with Aluminium and other metals which are destructive for plant growth
Hello guys,
I just stumbled over this site and this thread and I have a question or maybe a proposition to solve the runway "mystery" - sort of...
I may be terribly wrong and my memory might play tricks on me but I think I´ve read/seen about using SRBs for tankers etc. to shorten the runway length...I´ve done a quick search but did not come up with something...
ah found it...RATO - rocket assisted take off (might be referred to as JATO aswell)
but I have no idea if that can be applied to a KC 135, I´m sure the C-130 has this and the old B 47 had this option too, so I don´t see why a KC 135 would not be able to get a boost
here you go, around 0:40 it nicely shows how much quicker the take off can be done using rockets
They used to be more common for military planes after WWII, but not so much anymore, since modern jets have a much better thrust:weight ratio. A lot of modern air forces still have systems for it, and a whole host of military planes are capable of it (at least in theory). The US air force also tested (edit: actually seen in the video in a couple variations) a rocket assisted landing unit for the C-130 that would pair with JATO to let a plane land and take off within the length of a single runway.And, just how many of these rocket assisted take-offs have been done in relation to the photos we have seen?
You are correct that it is a struggle getting them airborne when fully loaded - several of the KC-135 pilots I have talked to have taken until the very end of 10,000 foot plus runways to get airborne, and one of the KC-10 pilots I know said they would occasionally take off with less than a full load then take on fuel from a KC-135 to make it easier.
Page 3-45 of this technical manual has a chart for calculating minimum runway for a particular speed - for example, a sea level takeoff at 30 degrees (Celsius) at Max takeoff weight would require about a 13,500 foot runway.
(might be referred to as JATO aswell)