Carrier Landing Practice Runway
This is pretty cool. It’s a Marine Air Corps runway but they have the outline of an aircraft carrier painted on the runway with little planes and everything. This is obviously for carrier landing training, a wee bit safer than attempting it on the real thing. I’ve heard that landing on an aircraft carrier can be one of the most diffcult things a navy pilot can do. Chris Dawson tell us:
They even have the cable mechanism there to slow the planes on landing (1/2 mile from my parents’ house). We usually see Harriers practicing from here.
Thanks Chris!
This is Bogue Field. The runway is made of aluminum panels which can be moved to other sites.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/bogue-field.htm
If you look closely at maximum zoom, you can see President Bush in his flight suit.
There’s another one of these here:
Placemark: Google Maps
It’s low-res in Maps, but in his-res glory in Earth.
This is a similated LHA located on Red Beach at Camp Pendleton California. An LHA is a small aircraft carrier designed to carry helicopters and many, many, U.S. Marines. OOHRAH!
Placemark: Google Maps
Yeah, those aren’t aircraft carrier outlines, they’re LHA outlines…sorry guys. And there are no arresting cables on these ships, so I don’t know what you’re seeing. Those aren’t airplanes on them either, those are landing marks for the AV-8B Harrier and various helicopters carried aboard. Check out the real thing: Placemark: Google Maps
Just wanted to say thanks for the marker - I was just in Emerald Isle on vacation. I saw the AV-8 practicing and watched a C-130 fly over during what seemed like touch-n-go’s for two days in a row. Also watched a fleet form up just off the coast including an aircraft carrier, an AEGIS cruiser, a couple of other escorts and what looked like the bridge of a sub. It was a good vacation
It’s the deck of an LHA/Tarawa-Class Ship. West Coast: USS Belleau Wood (LHA-3,) USS Tarawa (LHA-1,) USS Peleliu (LHA-5.) East Coast: Saipan (LHA-2,) and Nassau (LHA-5.)
Remarkable ships that have a stern gate which opens-up to de-ballast the ship and submerge the ‘wet’ well deck to launch/recover Marine Corps landing craft (and pique the curiosity of a California Sea Lion or two.)