Other pics of HBRDE Mitchell's first flights

Looks VERY similar to the set-up at Aspen, Colorado….VERY similar…

Good looking B-25, hope you guys have fun with it, as I’m sure you will…i can see why the neighbors would complain about the noise, those Wrights would echo off the hills like heck!

Mark

Yes but more detailed then mine.
This is “Ambri Piotta” former Swiss air Force base.

Look at the attached pic taken from the uper-turret, and you will see why their is a displaced treshold.
You understand as well why training on B-25 overthere was fun.
You can see the runway only when you turn on final.

whoops, mine took a bit long to type.

great shots and fantastic restoration.

scrooge

The touch down thresholds are set by a standard profile (light a/c 1:20, medium 1:40, heavy and fast/military jet 1:80, off memory) taking into account obstacles on the approach. And as this is a military airfield (Switzerland?) the 1:80 profile would be used, particularily if arrestor gear is not present. This means a long field with displaced thresholds to allow adequate landing area, but take off can be from the runway end- also useful in a loaded fighter jet – stol or not.

scrooge

edit: The profiles I used are actually for take off. A normal landing is a 3 degree profile, but the reasoning is the same.

Short rwy

Because of the montains close to the end of the rwy.
To clear the obstacles with a not too steep path, they had to draw a huge displaced treshold. On the other side, this can be used as a stop-way.

Very atmospheric shots.
But why is such a long runway configured to have such a short useable distance?