Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!n3dmc!gronk!johnl
From: johnl@gronk.UUCP (John Limpert)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: shuttle landing sites
Message-ID: <370@gronk.UUCP>
Date: 27 Oct 88 16:01:33 GMT
Article-I.D.: gronk.370
References: <2137@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu> <5590@ecsvax.uncecs.edu> <794@hadron.UUCP> <7225@dasys1.UUCP>
Reply-To: johnl@gronk.UUCP (John Limpert)
Organization: BFEC/GSFC Greenbelt, Maryland
Lines: 23

In article <7225@dasys1.UUCP> axelson@dasys1.UUCP (Kevin Axelson) writes:
>In article <794@hadron.UUCP>, klr@hadron.UUCP (Kurt L. Reisler) writes:
>> ... I have heard tales that Dullas is large enough (long enough in
>> the runway department) to serve as an emergency landing site.  However,
>> the location is wrong.

The runways at Dulles are long, 10,000 feet if I remember correctly.

>And a commercial jetliner crashed in the hills just to the west of
>the airport a few years back.  Geography is a problem.   

I believe the plane flew right into a hill adjacent to the "secret"
Mt. Weather installation during a landing approach with bad visibility.
This was a considerable distance from Dulles Airport.

>Seriously, I'd have thought that a lot of military airstrips would be 
>better candidates than commercial airports.  Is this a misconception?

While many commercial airports have relatively short runways, Dulles should
compare favorably to the typical military airbase.

-- 
John Limpert		johnl@gronk.UUCP	uunet!n3dmc!gronk!johnl