1955 - An F-84 Thunderjet is launched from a truck

 


In a paralyzing flash of yellowish light and billows of orangish smoke, the F-84 Thunderjet leaped off the "world's smalles airfield" and sped through the skies. The airfield is a launching truck, built for the Air Force as one answer to an urgent problem of atomic warfare: the easy destructibility of forward airfields. The highly mobile truck, which was designed by the Glenn L. Martin Co., carries a version of the launching platform used to fire the Matador guided missile. The plane is hoisted to take-off position by the truck's cranelike arms. As the jet turns on full power, a rocket "booster" bottle under its tail is fired and the plane shoots off at 120 mph.

Using truck airfields, a fighter wing could disperse over hundreds of miles. Only problem is getting the plane down in a small space. The Air Force is working on having its truck-launched plane land on its belly without wheels on a rubber mat, requiring a runway far shorter than the 8,000-footer the F-84 ordinarily needs.

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images and info provided by the LIFE Magazine / LIFE Magazine International / LIFE Magazine Atlantic ARCHIVE from the Zetu Harrys Collection