Evening star., 1941-09-28
Air Force Will Try
Portable Runways
During Maneuvers
AlI-SteeI Device Can
Be UnroIIed Like Carpet
On Emergency Fields
The Stars Special News Service.


The Stars Special News Service.
LAKE CHARLES, La. Sept. a.
Army aviation engineers are about
ready to display their latest crea-
tion-an all-steel runway, thou
sands of feet long, which can be
transported and unrolled like a
carpet.
The runway, called a mat, is so
heavy it must be moved on flatcars,
but can support the largest bomberS,
according to engineers participating
in the Louisiana war games.
1t has been under constant test
at Langley Field Va, and is to be
used for the first time in field op-
erations at Hoffman, N. c. in No
vember during the 1st Army ma
neuvers.
The core of the camouflage tech
nique of these engineers, organized
only year ago. is to make enemy
bomberS think there is no airfield
where there is one and that there
is one where there isn't.
Difficult to Bomb.
One engineer, explaining that re-
ports from the European war indi-
cate more planes have been de-
stroyed on the ground than in the
air, said camouf1aged fields are diff
cult to spot and bomb from the air.
The bombing plane does not drop
its load directly over a target.
Anti-aircraft fire can keep a bomb
er flying 800 miles per hour above
$4,000 feet, which is miles high"
he said.
He must be able to see his target
travelling at that speed and
height-from miles away in order
to release his bomb at a point 8
miles from his target. The bomb
will fall in parabola, not straight
down"
The camoufaging job includes
painting concrete runways green or
broWn-plus fake fences painted on
the concrete for added effect-to
correspond to the surrounding
countryside: eliminating from mill
tary fields hangers such as civilians
see at municipal airports and Gre
atlng dummy fields with dummy
planes in such detail that even
phony shadows show.
The 21st Engineer Regiment,
formerly Regular Army organiza-
ton, was converted into an arm of
the air force in July, 1910. a couple
of months after the Germans had
demonstrated the usefulness of the
setup in their Norwegian invasion,
which, being principally air-borne,
frustrated the British Navy.
The regiment, still the only regi-
ment of engineers working with the
air force, has formed the nucleus
for separate battalions. which have
mushroomed so fast they now are
scattered across the United States
and its possessions.
80 many air bases have been con-
structed hurriedly through necessity
in this national emergency" one
officer explained. that we have
been unable to do a camoufaging
job on them"
He said the American engineers
had learned much from the British
efforts to protect their air fields
from German attack and that as a
result of these lessons the ideal
American air base would be built
like this:
No administration buildings or
hangers. The usual long runways,
but camouflaged, and the whole sur
rounded by circular runway with
exits into protected covers" for
individual ships.
Will Hide in "Coves."
Thus a ship landing on a main
runway would taxi of to the circular
runway and then be pulled back
ward into a cove protected on all
sides. except in front, by sandbag or
log revetments. The planes in these
coveS would also be protected by
camouhage netting. Three minutes
after raid alarm is sounded they
can be out Of the cove, on the run
ways and in the air.
In the event of a sudden surprise
enemy bombing Of the field only
q hit landing in front of the open
part of the revetment could damage
a plane The planes within the
other revetments would not be dam
aged.
Repair and maintenance shops
for the field could even include
gas chamber, but all would be
underground or sandbagged and
camouf1aged to make them indis-
tinguishable from the air.
A dummy airfield, an engineer
said, can be constructed simply by
cutting a swath long as a runway
through a field of grass. From the
air the swath would look like run
way.
Would Reproduce Shadows.
This dummy field would be To-
Gated miles from the real field ard
would show dummy planes standing
there with shadows moved to keep
pace with the time of day and the
suns shadow.
Other jobs of the engineers to
PROTECT dlIlleluS lIOIIl e1leLly ali VI
land attacks are:
Placing obstacles on the runWays,
such as logs, vehicles, or even wire
coils, to snare the wheels and equip
ment of a plane attempting to
land; road blocks. obstacles such
as trees or logs thrown across ap-
proach roads to stall mechanical
or motorized enemy movements;
tank traps, anti-tank mine areas,
machine gun emplacements which
could be sandbags or concrete pill
boxes, and demolition charges to
blow down trees or dynamite run
ways or roads in the face of ad-
vancing hostile forces.