Alaska Aviation Museum

susan macvicarVery cool...we were wondering what that was.

PodróżnikThe gravel suppression ski ended up being a huge panic program at Boeing. They sold the gravel kit to allow operation on gravel runways in Alaska to the customer without really having a solution in mind, and it turned out that the simple solution (brushes around the nose wheels) did not work -- it actually sent more gravel into the engine than without it. They ended up building a gravel runway for testing, and fitted a 737 with screens on the engines and with high speed cameras to test various solutions -- finally found that the ski did a good job suppressing gravel disturbed by the tires.

susan macvicarGreat back story!