Rocket Leap-Off

The difficult, sophisticated way to fly a jet plane off a short runway or no runway at all is to design it so it can stand on its tail like the Ryan Vertijet and zoom directly upward. The simple, brute-force way is to blast it into the air with rocket power. Last week the Air Force announced that the "zero-length" launch, done in the past with less advanced airplanes, has been accomplished with North American's supersonic F-100D fighter.

The blasted jet starts its leap from a trailer with a short, upward-slanting ramp. Strapped under its tail is a pod of rocket fuel, which develops 130,000 lbs. of thrust. In three seconds the F-100D is 400 to 500 ft. up and flying at 275 m.p.h. North American's Test Pilot Al Blackburn says the jolt is not bad at all. "It's a piece of cake," he says.

The Air Force, whose chronic worry is that it may lose some of its jet runways through enemy action or political upsets, hopes to cut bigger pieces of the same cake. Some of its takeoff experts believe that B58 intermediate bombers (weight: 150,000 lbs.) and even enormous B-52 heavy bombers (weight: over 400,000 lbs.) can be blasted off trailers. If this proves true, bombers can be dispersed so widely on their trailers that even a heavy surprise attack will not destroy them.

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