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Old 1st Jul 2011, 15:51
  #33 (permalink)  
Fareastdriver
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: UK
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We used to clear the snow of the runway at Oakington with a couple of Vampires. With the Vampire you could manoever it quite easily around the tarmac and a two pairs could clear a strip on the runway sufficient to get off in about two hours with a refuel.

Another aircraft well suited to this task was the Victor; again jet pipes pointing downwards at a slight angle. The Victor required a tug to push it around. They had to stop when they had a bit to much throttle on and it pushed the tug off the runway and turned it over.

Then some Eng Off invented the twin Dewent fuel bowser as a runway clearer. Being engineers they collared all the Dewents the Air Force had instead of the time-expired ones and suddenly the flying Meteors ran out of spares.
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