Originally Posted by
KelvinD
Asphalt? That could be a bad move. I remember at Fairford 2016, they had to lay a temporary steel mesh strip to allow the F-35 to manage a vertical landing. The explanation given was that the asphalt would melt!
We had to patch a few bits of runway due to the efforts of the Yak 141 a Farnborough in '92 during practice/validations; this was after he had specifically been asked NOT to use the ashpalt but operate from the concrete at the end.
A few years earlier, even a Mig 29 had melted a patch of taxiway surface after it was held there due to its efflux pointing slightly downwards.