[SmartCat]

C-130J lands on Lucknow Agra expressway - it was a complete landing, not a touch and go landing that fighter aircrafts did previously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=MHGDC2eXQ3Y

Full Report:
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/15-f...essway-1766193

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by smartcat

C-130J lands on Lucknow Agra expressway - it was a complete landing, not a touch and go landing that fighter aircrafts did previously.

Always impressive! Were these roads developed specifically with this mind. For instance in Sweden and Switzerland they do so. Meaning they ensure sufficient straight length, good approach routes, no lights, buildings, viaducts etc.

Jeroen

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Always impressive! Were these roads developed specifically with this mind. For instance in Sweden and Switzerland they do so. Meaning they ensure sufficient straight length, good approach routes, no lights, buildings, viaducts etc.

I guess so. When small countries (Switzerland, Sweden) face a threat of pre-emptive strike on their airbases from larger enemy (Russia), roads doubling up as runways help. In our neighborhood, Pakistan Air Force was the first to use expressway as fighter aircraft runways. Here is an old video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2wYPpnHflM

I guess Taiwan/Japan Air Force already has this 'capability'. India followed suit couple of years back, keeping China threat in mind. 1 Hour video of today's exercise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_DpHUU6XTY

[GTO]

Thanks for sharing, Smartcat! Moving to a new thread.

[Jeroen]

I was reading the other day on some of the practical challenges of landing and taking off on motorways, especially with jets. Obviously, in many cases the motorway might not be as wide as a runway, but a proficient pilot should not have a problem. It does require very precise flying especially on the approach and all of it tends to be completely visual with not the usual cues you would get at a normal airport. E.g. runway markings, PAPI etc.

One special caution on the take off; these jets produce a big exhaust blast at quite high temperature. It can easily damage the normal tarmac on motorways. Special attention needs to be given to take offs using reheat/afterburners as those exhaust gasses are really hot!

Although it looks easy and well controlled it does take a lot of planning and perfect execution because the margin for errors is even less than for normal airport operations.

Sometimes military pilots are portrait as aggressive pilots, especially fighter pilots. But as pilots they are first and foremost extremely good in very precise flying under all sort of circumstances. Whether it is formation flying, these sort of landings, tactical landings, air to air refueling, combat maneuvers etc.

Hats off!

Jeroen

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Always impressive! Were these roads developed specifically with this mind.

Jeroen

Yes, this particular stretch has been developed as a full fledged runway. I had posted details about this here http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post4290310

It's a 3.2 km long runway which has no dividers in between or any light posts on the sides. I guess they have the runway lights but am not sure. If lights are not there, then they lose their importance during night flying. Nevertheless, it's a beautiful and quite wide stretch. I have a video which can be seen here. Please excuse for the background noise.

https://youtu.be/g1yep2ArOUk

A couple of snaps.

[vikasshu]

Some lovely pics as well of landing https://twitter.com/zone5aviation/st...22644994633728

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

Yes, this particular stretch has been developed as a full fledged runway.



It's a 3.2 km long runway which has no dividers in between or any light posts on the sides. I guess they have the runway lights but am not sure. If lights are not there, then they lose their importance during night flying. Nevertheless, it's a beautiful and quite wide stretch.

Thanks, 3.2 KM is quite a decent length, although of course how much is really usable also depends on how you can approach it.

Would be interesting to see the approach plates for these. As they are military probably not that easy. When we flew to Lahdak a few years ago I tried to find approach plate. But none of my (commercial) pilot friends could help out as it is also a military airport, even though it serves commercial aviation as well.

Would be great to hear from somebody in the know, how they plan for these approaches and take offs.

Jeroen

[SmartCat]

I think the stretch needs to be 'prepared' for aircraft landing - removal of small stones, debris and dust particles from the road. I presume the fighter aircraft did a 'touch and go' landing to avoid the possibility of Foreign Object Damage.

But Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules needs no 'landing strip' preparation - it can land pretty much anywhere, in a cloud of dust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KUprBZsdcI

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by smartcat

I think the stretch needs to be 'prepared' for aircraft landing - removal of small stones, debris and dust particles from the road. I presume the fighter aircraft did a 'touch and go' landing to avoid the possibility of Foreign Object Damage.

But Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules needs no 'landing strip' preparation - it can land pretty much anywhere, in a cloud of dust.

Ya. That's the main reason why the fighters did not land and did a touch and go. The C-130J Super Hercules is indeed a go anywhere aircraft. This is of a landing they did at Juhu aerodrome.

https://youtu.be/Dgx5UFyeNWQ

Juhu aerodrome is a very small one with 2 runways, both very short.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juhu...me?wprov=sfla1

[vikasshu]

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

Ya. That's the main reason why the fighters did not land and
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juhu...me?wprov=sfla1

Out of the three planes, Jaguar seems to be quite capable with strong landing gears. Came across an interesting video showing Jaguars using grass fields and motorways way back in mid 70s for landing and take off. Watch from 2:19 onwards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4_CpSFIfwU

[sgiitk]

It was quite spectacular. As has been rightly observed the central divider (plastic) was moved out and the then the ops took place. This was better than the inauguration, where the touch-go was aborted when a DOG was found running on the strip. At least we did not have any dogs or cattle running on the strip.

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by smartcat

C-130J lands on Lucknow Agra expressway - it was a complete landing, not a touch and go landing that fighter aircrafts did previously.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/15-f...essway-1766193

It kind of bounces after it lands. Got to have good dampers and suspension for the weight of the aircraft

[Sip]

Simply spectacular

It may appear a simple show of touchdown but it is extremely challenging. Navigation, coordination, precision, safety set up in isolated locations are major challenges. Use of such strips obviously provides options in potential conflict situations. Kudos to the men in blue for this remarkable act!

[apachelongbow]

Its not as challenging as it sounds. There are lot of modern methods to achieve precision in landing in unprepared fields even. The Indian GPS system, GAGAN is already ready. Its a ground based satillite augumentation system which covers most of middle east, south east asia and Indian airspace. The highlight in GAGAN system is, any aircraft equipped with a GAGAN reciever, can recieve synthetic glideslope and localizer signals to any airport, uprepared strip or peice of road identified by gps coordinates that too right from top of descent. So in essense, coupled with an autoland the aircraft can track the synthetic ILS like signal from its cruising level, all the way to touchdown and rollout. On any airfield within India, which has aids or not.