3legged_lab wrote:FlintRiverFowler wrote:jehler wrote:capt1972 wrote:AKPirate wrote:[quote="capt1972"][quote="AKPirate"][quote="capt1972"]last I knew, major runways are 36 inches thick at each end and 18 inches in the middle to handle the weight of these planes.
One of the things we did in the Army was build dirt airfields. Requires a lot of compaction.
Saw it on Modern Marvels, just passing it along.
I believe you and wasn't contradicting you
no problem. Also, I would imagine landing on dirt would suck up all kinds of shit into the engines. I don't see how the plane would be flyable again.
runways are built that thick to withstand the abuse of non stop landings, not because a plane requires it to be that thick or it will fall through or something. Planes can land on dirt/gravel runways any plane, hell, I remember the space shuttle landing on a dirt runway[/quote]
This.
But taking off on that shit could possibly be a different story. The Boeing manual recommends against induction of terra-firma into the turbines.[/quote]
Haha. I pictured you adjusting your pocket protector and pushing up your glasses when I read this in the voice of the scientist on the Simpson's.[/quote]
Long story but my uncle said it to me once, when talking about buzzing a beach. He's a 767 pilot for delta but also a known crazy person. Back when i was a kid we used to take my granddads plane out and do a lot of low altitude passes over friends and family's houses. Called it buzzing.