Thanks for posting, Bob! Fascinating stuff!

"Bob Moore" wrote in message
. 7...
Mike Beede wrote

Anyone know what the balanced field length for a minimum-fuel 707
would have been? Considering how much of an airliner's weight is
fuel and cargo, it seems like it would have been fairly short.

Mike, the answer is not that easy, too many variables, some of
which require a longer field lenght than just balanced-field.
A late model 707 empty weighed about 150,000# and with a couple
of hours of fuel would weigh about 175,000# which would only
require somewhere around 4,000' of runway. I say around because
the charts do not go down that far because of the real limiting
factor which is VMC (ground) which is 122kts regardless of weight
and this factor sets the minimum value of V1 to 122kts.... the
equivalent of a 250,000# airplane and requiring a field length
longer than the 4,000'/100kt V1 numbers would indicate. Obviously,
the 175,000# airplane gets to 122kts faster than a 250,000# airplane
will, but at PanAm, our manual required a minimum field length
that would accomodate the 250,000#/122kt airplane, or about 6,000'.
That being said....I did operate 707s out of Arthur Jones' private
runway on his estate near Ocala, FL when it was only 5,000' long. It
has since been lengthened. Arthur made his fortune in the Nautilus
exercise equipment business and owned three B-707s. John Travolta
lives there now and flies his B-707 from the lengthened 6,000' run-
way.

Bob Moore