Simviation Forums

Was there any commercial jet aircraft, not Russian, that was designed to land on a gravel runway?

I beleive the 737 could with some attachments

Not officially according to Boeing.

I think the Lear is capeable of landing on gravel because of where the engines are located up high on the tail. Of course You can allways check out manufctuer to make sure, but I have seen several movies of them doing this but one has to rember this is the movies and I do not know if the plane was modifed in any way.
But I would not even think of landing a B737 on gravel because of where the engines are located. I used to work at KJAX and we used to refer to the b737-800 as the flying vacum cleaner those engines would suck any loose gravel right off the ground even in idle mode.

I think the Lear is capeable of landing on gravel because of where the engines are located up high on the tail.

In that case the MD-80 should also be able to do it them as the engines are really high up...

ASHAR
It would depend on the length of the runway and the type of gravel due to the vast weight differance between the two MD80's are a little heavier than Lear's so unless the gravel was really packed hard I would be leary landing anything much heavier than a lear.

Well, I believe the C-17 can land on gravel

Yes it can but the C-17 is not a comercial bird either.

In the manufacturer docs this aircraft, at least in it's first version was designed to be used on gravel runways. The MD-80 doesn't fit becasue of that limitation.

I would imagine that any of them "could" land on gravel and as much as airliners are side-loaded.. gravel might even be better. It's the taking off part .. with the engines sucking in all that air that would be a problem.

Oh yeah.. thrust reversers  :-[

Never-mind...

Why would you want to? It would effectivey rip up the undercarriage with pebbles and cause maybe thousands of (insert currency here) to repair it.

Well, it might not seem like such a bad idea if say, your in a 737 and your port engine decides to detach itself from the wing.

I remember having read something about a 727 that was modified for landing on gravel runways in Alaska, sometime ago.

Don't remember much about it, though.

Bingo..

Give ashaman a cigar

The 727-100 in its first incarnation was also designed and certified to land and takeoff from gravel runways.

The 727 design was started in 1956 and there were a lot of gravel runways that the airlines still used at that time.

So was this question a triva question that you already knew th answer to?

If it is and i had known that i would have tried harder  ;D

I think i've seen pics of a Fokker F-28 next to a gravel strip somewhere. Dont know where though.

-gottoflynow