<story><title>British F-35Bs to bring vertical landing abilities to highways</title><url>https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/british-f-35bs-to-bring-vertical-landing-abilities-to-highways</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sillywalk</author><text>&amp;quot;FTA: 
they would involve placing aluminum AM-2 mats along a strip of highway, up to 1,500 feet long. This will be sufficient for the stealth jets to carry out short takeoffs and vertical landings while protecting the road beneath them.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;AM-2 matting consists of 1 1&amp;#x2F;2&amp;quot; x 2&amp;#x27; steel rectangles coated with a epoxy nonskid material, available in both 6 and 12 foot lengths, and are assembled in a brickwork pattern to form runways, taxiways, parking and other areas required for aircraft operations and maintenance. Thirty ISO containers can be constructed to form a 1,500 square foot vertical, short landing and take off airfield and can accommodate up to a total of eleven CH53, UH1, AH1 and AV8B aircraft. &amp;quot; [1]&lt;p&gt;I  wonder about FOD. i.e. all the crap in and around a highway that could damage the engines..&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cassholdings.com&amp;#x2F;AM2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cassholdings.com&amp;#x2F;AM2.htm&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tolien</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;FTA: they would involve placing aluminum AM-2 mats along a strip of highway, up to 1,500 feet long. This will be sufficient for the stealth jets to carry out short takeoffs and vertical landings while protecting the road beneath them.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;They did this before as part of an airshow demo. The Royal Engineers (Army co-operation!) had built pads at RAF Fairford for RIAT then the F-35B flew in, engaged STOVL mode (i.e. lift fan door open, rear engine nozzle pointed down etc.) and landed vertically on it then took off again.&lt;p&gt;Can&amp;#x27;t remember what year it was; Google suggests the MoD released PR saying they had done the same thing at Marham in 2018 but it&amp;#x27;s possible the demo was by a USMC F-35B.</text></comment>
<story><title>British F-35Bs to bring vertical landing abilities to highways</title><url>https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/british-f-35bs-to-bring-vertical-landing-abilities-to-highways</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sillywalk</author><text>&amp;quot;FTA: 
they would involve placing aluminum AM-2 mats along a strip of highway, up to 1,500 feet long. This will be sufficient for the stealth jets to carry out short takeoffs and vertical landings while protecting the road beneath them.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;AM-2 matting consists of 1 1&amp;#x2F;2&amp;quot; x 2&amp;#x27; steel rectangles coated with a epoxy nonskid material, available in both 6 and 12 foot lengths, and are assembled in a brickwork pattern to form runways, taxiways, parking and other areas required for aircraft operations and maintenance. Thirty ISO containers can be constructed to form a 1,500 square foot vertical, short landing and take off airfield and can accommodate up to a total of eleven CH53, UH1, AH1 and AV8B aircraft. &amp;quot; [1]&lt;p&gt;I  wonder about FOD. i.e. all the crap in and around a highway that could damage the engines..&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cassholdings.com&amp;#x2F;AM2.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cassholdings.com&amp;#x2F;AM2.htm&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chinathrow</author><text>&amp;gt; I wonder about FOD. i.e. all the crap in and around a highway that could damage the engines..&lt;p&gt;They would send out personal to remove FOD (foreign object debris) before any operations and before laying those mats, I assume.</text></comment>