As a 19 year old I was standing along the runway at Northrop to watch the
first takeoff of the second B-49-- the runway was 5000ft and there was
concern the plane may need every foot so they removed the fence at the end
of the runway--the field was saturated with rabbit holes--When all eight
engines were running max. rpm the ground began to vibrate--a thousand
rabbits began to run everywhere--I read the test pilots remarks later--he
said he released the brakes and the plane began to roll-- after a few
hundred feet he thought he was in trouble because the rabbits were running
ahead of him faster than he was rolling--but then the acceleration kicked
in--he lifted off in about 2500 ft--the landing gear doors were supposed to
be closed prior to the speed he had achieved on the ground so he assumed a
steep climb to kill some airspeed--of course that didn't happen, the plane
continued to accelerate--the extreme steep angle he assumed at climb out
took everyone's breath away--a lot of laughing and back slapping among the
crowd--we had watched a B-29 struggle off the runway the day before and I
think it needed all 5000ft.

> wrote in message
...

On Sun, 23 Sep 2007 16:07:06 -0700, "Just Duckie"
> wrote:

>As a 19 year old I was standing along the runway at Northrop to watch the
>first takeoff of the second B-49-- the runway was 5000ft and there was
>concern the plane may need every foot so they removed the fence at the end
>of the runway--the field was saturated with rabbit holes--When all eight
>engines were running max. rpm the ground began to vibrate--a thousand
>rabbits began to run everywhere--I read the test pilots remarks later--he
>said he released the brakes and the plane began to roll-- after a few
>hundred feet he thought he was in trouble because the rabbits were running
>ahead of him faster than he was rolling--but then the acceleration kicked
>in--he lifted off in about 2500 ft--the landing gear doors were supposed to
>be closed prior to the speed he had achieved on the ground so he assumed a
>steep climb to kill some airspeed--of course that didn't happen, the plane
>continued to accelerate--the extreme steep angle he assumed at climb out
>took everyone's breath away--a lot of laughing and back slapping among the
>crowd--we had watched a B-29 struggle off the runway the day before and I
>think it needed all 5000ft.
>
> wrote in message
.
Thanks for sharing the story. enjoyed the info.

Troy