[TheForge] Fw: PSP

[Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer]

There was also welded matting used for landing strips during the Korean 
war..i salvaged some years ago and have been making racks out of it ever 
since.

David E. Smucker wrote:
> In WWII it was made of steel.  In the 60's from aluminum and called "landing 
> mats" by Alcoa.  Made at New Kensington Works when I started in 68.  I have 
> seen the steel PSP use for fencing in Colorado just last summer.
> 
> Dave
> 
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Cindy and James" <jallcorn at suddenlink.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 11:44 AM
> To: <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] TheForge Digest, Vol 63, Issue 58
> 
>> This was my father-in-law's reply to the question of PSP.  JA
>>
>>
>> James
>> PSP has hooks that hook into the piece adjacent to it.  It is laid like
>> bricks so that ends butt and joints are staggered.  It has holes punched
>> in it for weight reduction and the punch was the type that carried lots
>> of metal through to the back side which helped stiffen the plank. As I
>> recall they were about eight feet long.  (I never carried one or
>> examined them except from the cockpit.)  They were laid over soft ground
>> so aircraft could land and take-off.  Kolie field on Guadalcanal  was
>> all PSP even the taxi strips and the revetment areas.  If an aircraft
>> got off the PSP it would sink until the wing tip started to take the
>> weight.  It was a big project to get them back on the PSP. Usually, Jack
>> ed them up and laid PSP under the wheels back to the PSP they run off
>> of. The runways up the Solomon Chain were coral - just dump spread and
>> roll.  The CB"s built them in less than a week.  Bouganville was PSP and
>> I believe Buka was also but I never landed there.
>> PSP would roll up like a wave in front of a B-24.  It made Take-off and
>> landing different.  T.O was longer and Landing shorter. Believe me, at
>> night with a heavy load and no lights it made take-off a very sporting
>> event.  The runway was none too long and when it was hard to see the end
>> it makes for worry when you are approaching the grass and you can't make
>> it out very clearly.  There more than one pair of tire marks in the
>> overrun and not all of the aircraft went on to the target. It is a hard
>> way to start a mission when you lose and aircraft at home prior to
>> departure.
>> PSP was available on civilian/surplus market after the war.  There must
>> be some of it somewhere that could be purchased if cost was not a factor.
>> My two cents worth
>> Jim J
>> USAF Retired.
>>> I've seen two over lapping layers of heavy expanded metal raised edge
>>> wired together for this purpose but the substrate must not be too
>>> loose. A guy I used to work with (Now Deceased) was a WW2 vet who said
>>> they used this method for emergency airfields on some pacific islands.
>>> I don't remember if this was a landing surface or a base layer he
>>> described, but I think it started as a landing surface and if needed
>>> became more sophisticated.
>>> L Brown
>>>
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