When the F-117 first came to RAF Fairford in the UK a few years back it
was supported by a KC-10.

We could listen in on the tower frequency and the farce that unfolded
was comical.

First they asked that the arresting gear be deployed - so that the F-117
could land on Fairfords 10,000 ft runway.

Then someone pointed out that it was SOP for the KC-10 to land first
(presumably to make the area safe for the F-117 ??) - so they then had
to un-deploy the arresting gear, land the KC-10, re-deploy the gear then
land the F-117!!

Good job they weren't fuel critical !!!

Come to think of it - there was some haste in getting them both down!

IIRC there was some debate about whether the KC-10 could land with the
arrestor gear in place - but folded down. I think they decided that it
was too dangerous to have the KC-10 run over the grommets on the
arrester wires.

Ken

Charles Talleyrand wrote:

I notice that the Air Force rules for an F-117 landing without using the
drag chute require a runway of at least 10,000 feet and an arresting
device at the end of this 10,000 foot runway.

The minimum runway for takeoffs by rule is 8,000 foot.

Even a 737 can do better than this. Why is the runway requirement
so long?

See http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/docs/17v3.pdf
rule 2.2.3 and 3.20.