I used to fly frequently out of K.C. Municipal before KCI was built. Was always white knuckled until we cleared the sky-scrapers.
I remember flying out of Shreveport back in the 70’s. The plane pulled onto the runway, then one of the little tractors came out and backed us to the very end of the runway, the tail was hanging out over the grass. The pilot went to full throttle while holding the brakes. When he had enough power he released the brakes and we were off. Kind of like a 727 taking off from a carrier. I felt like I knew what the Doolittle boys went through coming off the Hornet.