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ADVANCED LANDING FIELDS
66. PURPOSE. The need for advanced landing fields becomes urgent as our troops move rapidly ahead or, in some cases, on islands or territory behind the enemy. Time is the all-important factor and this type field may serve its purpose if available for only a few days. As the forward area becomes the rear area, an advanced landing field can be improved for our medium and heavy bombers but initially it serves our fighter and transport planes.
67. REQUIREMENTS. a.
Speed and simplicity are the essence of advanced landing field
construction. Three essential factors govern speed of
construction: reconnaissance to find a site at which little work
is needed; getting troops, equipment, and material to the site
quickly; and continuous work until the field is in operation.
Simplicity means undertaking no more work than is necessary for
immediate air operations.
b. Dimensional and lay-out criteria for
advanced landing fields are given in chapter 7. However, military
necessity often requires deviation from recommended minimum
standards, especially for the more temporary fields. The common
deviations are steeper angle of glide and greater angular
difference between direction of landing strip and prevailing wind
direction.
c. The minimum facilities to be provided at an
advanced landing field usually are:
(1) One landing strip with
dispersed hard standings and connecting taxiways, all cleared,
drained, and graded. These must be surfaced if used for
operations in wet weather (fig. 19(6)).
(2) An access road,
unless air transport is used.
(3) Dumps for supplies, ammunition,
and gasoline drums.
(4) Service roads from damps to taxiways and
hard standings.
(5) Drinking water supply.
d. To permit rapid
construction a site must be fairly clear of trees and dense
growth, flat enough to require little grading, and slightly
sloped, so that effective drainage can be provided by simple open
ditches.
e. Because of their temporary nature and susceptibility
to enemy raids provision must be made for continuous maintenance
and repair (ch. 24).
68. RECONNAISSANCE AND LAY-OUT. a. The
reconnaissance procedure for advanced landing fields, generally,
is as described in chapter 8, with special emphasis on detailed
study of aerial photographs, maps, and intelligence reports. All
possible information should be compiled in advance of ground
reconnaissance, sometimes even to the point of a preliminary
lay-out. Ground reconnaissance upon arrival at the site must be a
rapid but accurate appraisal of conditions, or verification of
previously acquired information.
b. A practical test for
stability and wheel-supporting capacity of an earth surface may
be made by running a car or truck back and forth over a short
distance six times in the same tracks. If the resulting
depression, measured at the midlength of the track, is no more
than about one-half inch, and if no further deepening results
with additional running in the same tracks, the surface is
satisfactory.
c. Lay-out is decided during the reconnaissance.
Detailed surveys and plans are not made (fig. 24(1)). Usually a
center-line profile and a few transverse profiles are taken from
which the grade line is established and the drainage scheme
decided. (See chs. 10 and 13.)
d. If a base course is required,
the reconnaissance must include location of suitable materials
and decision as to the thickness and method of construction. (See
chs. 11, 12, and 15.)
69. HASTY ESTIMATES. Quantities of work to be done are estimated from the plans formulated during reconnaissance. These quantities are the basis for estimating either the equipment and troops required to meet a specified completion date or the time required to do the job with the troops and equipment on hand. (See ch. 21 for methods of estimating, especially par. 169.)
70. DRY-WEATHER EARTH FIELDS
(fig. 24). a. Soil. The character of soil on the landing-strip is
the primary factor. Any soil is satisfactory if it can be
stabilized easily and maintained in a firm condition suitable for
plane operation. A well-graded soil containing coarse and fine
particles is desirable because it can be stabilized readily by
sprinkling and compaction. With good surface drainage it does not
lose stability quickly in ordinary rains. Fine-grained soils are
less desirable but will serve if they can be compacted. They lose
stability quickly under rain, and during dry weather some types,
such as silts with little cohesion, pulverize rapidly under
traffic. Unsatisfactory soils are loose sand, cohesionless silt,
and loose gravel. Often these can be made satisfactory by
stabilizing processes discussed in paragraph 128, but
considerable time is required for construction. Usually, laying a
steel landing mat (ch. 16) is the quickest way of preparing such
sites (fig. 26). (For complete discussion of soil classification
and characteristics see ch. 11.)
 |
| (1) Start of work. |
 |
| (2) Grading. |
 |
| (3) compacting with roller and trucks. Note corner marker of white stone rolled into surface. |
b. Construction (fig. 24). The usual procedure consists of clearing and grading, disking, sprinkling, and compacting. See chapter 13 for detailed explanation of these processes. Grading is limited to providing a longitudinal profile satisfactory for planes and a cross section that will drain the surface. Stones larger than about 2-inch diameter that are not embedded firmly in the surface must be removed from the landing strip. Slopes are difficult to judge by eye and in doubtful cases an engineer's level should be used. An ordinary clinometer is not sufficiently accurate. A practical test for smoothness of the surface may be made by driving a car over it at 20 and at 50 miles per hour. If there is no undue jarring or bumping, the surface is satisfactory.
c. Maintenance. Earth surfaces require constant maintenance. The principal problems are dust from loosening of the surface and mud from rainstorms (figs. 107 and 25). To settle dust water-sprinkling and rolling are employed. Dust palliatives, discussed in chapter 17, also may be used. The best protection against mud is positive surface drainage and outfall discharge of collected surface water. (See ch. 24 for more detailed discussion of maintenance and repair procedures.)
71. ALL-WEATHER FIELDS. a. Drainage
usually is the first and most important consideration for an
all-weather field, both to preserve the strength of subgrade and
base (par. 96) and to minimize the hazard to plane operations of
standing surface water (fig. 25). Provision must be made for
positive disposal of surface water by shaping the cross section
to shed water to the sides (fig. 16). Open channels along the
sides of the landing strip are provided to receive the surface
water and carry it to a natural drainage channel or an outfall
ditch away from the site (figs. 49 and 89). Every landing strip
should be virtually an island surrounded by drainage channels
carrying water away. (For design of drainage systems see ch. 13.)
Wherever water may flow onto a site from adjoining ground it is
necessary to construct intercepting ditches or dikes to collect
and divert it from the landing strip (par. 117a). The
ground-water level should be at least 2 feet below the low point
of the subgrade. If the advanced landing field later is developed
into a field airdrome for continuous operation, the subgrade
should be 4 feet above ground-water level unless the soil is
granular and unaffected by water. Where ground water is a
consideration and the subgrade soil will respond to sub-drainage
(table V) deep open ditches should be dug along the sides of the
landing strip to lower and control the water level. Water
collected by these side subdrains should be discharged through an
outfall. When practicable, explosives should be used freely to
permit rapid excavation of the side ditches and outfall.
b. A
steel landing mat usually is the fastest means of providing a
surface for all-weather operations. It works well on subgrades or
bases such as sand that do not soften appreciably when wet (fig.
26). In an emergency, it can be used for temporary operations on
soils of low stability, but constant maintenance is required to
keep the runway usable. If air operations must continue under
such circumstances, a base course must be provided. (See par. 131
for design of the base.)
 |
| Figure 25. Surface water and mud are seriuos hazard to aircraft operation. |
 |
| Figure 26. Steel landing mat works well on beach sand; however, for continuous operation sand should be treated (ch. 16) to prevent its displacement by propeller and exhaust blast. |
c. Local natural materials often can be used for rapid construction of a base course for all-weather operations. To meet construction time requirements the materials must be relatively near the site and easily recovered from the deposits. To serve without a steel landing mat or a pavement, the base-course material must be a type that compacts readily into a stable mass. Examples are graded gravel containing some natural binder, coral, and sand-clay.
72. TIME REQUIRED TO CONSTRUCT
ADVANCED LANDING FIELDS. Caution: The following statements of
time cannot be used for estimating a particular job. Each project
must be reconnoitered and estimated individually. See paragraph
69 and chapter 21. The figures given below are from records of
aviation engineer units in various theaters and are presented
primarily to emphasize the speed with which advanced landing
fields must be built.
a. Dry-weather advanced landing fields have
been constructed by one battalion at favorable sites in flat
terrain in from 1 to 3 days, including time for reconnaissance.
At less favorable sites, where more clearing and grading are
required, the time varies from 3 to 10 days.
b. One battalion has
constructed all-weather advanced landing fields in 10 to 21 days.
On most of them steel landing mats were used on the natural
subgrade; on others base courses of local natural materials were
used without surface treatment, or surfaced with steel landing
mat or bituminous treatment.
c. Captured enemy airdromes have
been restored for use as advanced landing fields in 1 to 3 days
depending upon the amount of drainage and the number of mines and
booby traps encountered.
73. AIR OPERATIONS AT ADVANCED LANDING FIELDS. Engineer troops frequently must assist air operations at advanced landing fields. To do so they must be familiar with runway marking procedure (par. 178) and signals for maneuvering planes on the ground (table XLI, app. II), control tower operations and signals (table XLII, app. II), flight patterns, and servicing of aircraft.
