Posted on 06/21/2016 6:35:58 AM PDT by snarkpup
Michigan National Guard attack aircraft practiced landing on and taking off from the Jägala-Käravete Highway, a portion of the longer road known as Piibe Highway, in Northern Estonia on Monday. The maneuvers were conducted as a part of international military operation Saber Strike wherein pilots practiced operating in a region with few actual airstrips and where alternatives would have to suffice.
“No A-10 as far as we know has done this since the 1980s,” explained Brig. Gen. Doug "Odie" Slocum, commander of the 127th Wing at Selfridge. “We practice short-field landings, we practice landing in 'austere locations' — is what we call it — but this is the first time in a long time that A-10s have landed on a highway strip."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.err.ee ...
Let’s see the “perfumed prince” F-35 do that. Roads have all kinds of FOD all over the place, and the 35’s intake is nicely positioned to perform an impromptu roadside cleanup. There’s a reason the Hog has its engines mounted so high.
Yabut, was there a bar nearby so the plane could park in the lot and the pilot grab a cold one?
Looking at the bigger picture, the US is heavily in debt, and we are already involved in numerous conflicts. Yet we have war planes from Michigan landing in Estonia. Something seems off here.
Wouldn’t an aircraft landing on a highway leave damage on the highway surface? I don’t think highways are built to accommodate the weight involved in an aircraft landing ...
Empty weight: 29,000 lb
Max T.O. weight: 51,000
They may not be pretty and sleek, but they are what you need when close air support can save your bacon.God save the warthogs and may they fly into a better incarnation can be developed, tested and manufactured.
And for reference, a loaded tractor-trailer has a GVW of well over 80,000 pounds, though that is spread over more wheels.
While I was in the ROK back in 1979 there were roadways that were as straight as an arrow.It didn’t take long to figure out that those roadways would soon become runways in the event that a war broke out with the nuts up north of the DMZ.
The A-10 was actually designed to operate from roadways and other makeshift runways in Europe. Also, the road construction in (then West) Germany is quite exceptional - particularly the Autobahn.
While I was in the ROK back in 1979 there were roadways that were as straight as an arrow.It didn’t take long to figure out that those roadways would soon become runways in the event that a war broke out with the nuts up north of the DMZ.
...
There’s a requirement that our interstates have a certain amount of straight sections for a similar reason.
Try landing on a rural highway in an F-35 without vertical take-off and landing (VTOL). At over 100 million a pop the pucker factor for the Brass is to great to even attempt it.
The Warthog is the right plane for the right time. It needs to receive some more technology investment but the airframe is perfect for the task of flying low and slow, taking small arms fire, all the while raining death and destruction on behalf of ground troops.
Because here in Michigan we know all about bad roads.
Guess it’s gonna come down to tire contact surface area.
I bet the twin nose tires have a similar contact patch to a typical semi tire, but the mains probably have 5 or more times that amount each.
lets run some numbers
allow an near empty weight of 30,000 pounds / 2 wheels = 15,000 pounds
if the the contact is 6’’ x 6 “ =36 square inches then 15,000/36 = 416 psi
It’s likely more but not a lot more
Probably not any heavier than a loaded 18 wheeler (A-10, that is).
I don’t know much about highway construction materials in Estonia, but here in the states the concrete sections will vary between 8-14 inches with rebar for additional structural load capacity. The base material under the concrete can be 4 inches of asphalt over another 12 inches of compacted base rock. Most highways will have some combination of the above depending on the geotechnical characteristics of the site.
And the concrete may vary between 4,000 and 6,000psi in compressive strength.
Oil shale is a big thing in Estonia, and one way they have gotten energy from it is to grind it up and burn it directly. I have heard that the baked gravel left over has some uses as a construction material. The baking probably metamorphoses it into something that is better as construction material than raw shale gravel.
The Michigan ANG has a presence here, in northern Michigan, and has for quite some time. I was standing on a bluff just off of Lake Charlevoix in the late seventies when a F-4 Phantom came sreaming over my position,turned ninety degrees on it’s right wing, and (Ipresume) hit the After-burners. It was a sight and sound I’ll never forget. Also, one time I was crew on a sailboat participating in the Red Fox Regatta, which is an overnight race from Charlevoix to Boyne City, and back. It was a beautiful day and I happened to look way up in the sky,and I could see a KC-135 refueling a F-15 Eagle. It only lasted a few minutes, but was impressive,and awe-inspiring.
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