This is amazing - the Pacific Coral Airstrips Were Alive
May 2, 2024 23:02:34 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 2, 2024 23:02:34 GMT 12
PACIFIC AIRFIELDS
LIVE CORAL USED
ADVANTAGES OF METHOD
An interesting method of constructing airfields on Pacific islands is being used by the Civil Engineer Corps of the United States Navy. It was discovered that the minute marine organisms of living coral provided surfaces far superior to those the Japanese had constructed from dead coral.
It was found that the dead coral of captured Japanese airstrips would not support the weight of the heavier American bombers. It was further discovered that the necessary hard-topped runways could be obtained by using living coral, which possesses a natural putty-like quality that gives it the necessary cohesive qualities and makes it almost as satisfactory as concrete.
A Navy Department statement says that airstrips on a score of Pacific bases are alive and are kept so by continual applications of salt water, so offsetting the effect of fresh water rain.
Live coral for making the airfields is dug from the sea with power shovels, carry-alls and drag lines, mechanical means largely denied the Japanese, who have relied almost wholly on hand labour for the construction of their airfields on the islands they seized. In some cases they used dead coral in combination with cement, but even these fields cannot stand up under the heavier American aircraft.
NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 2 MAY 1944
LIVE CORAL USED
ADVANTAGES OF METHOD
An interesting method of constructing airfields on Pacific islands is being used by the Civil Engineer Corps of the United States Navy. It was discovered that the minute marine organisms of living coral provided surfaces far superior to those the Japanese had constructed from dead coral.
It was found that the dead coral of captured Japanese airstrips would not support the weight of the heavier American bombers. It was further discovered that the necessary hard-topped runways could be obtained by using living coral, which possesses a natural putty-like quality that gives it the necessary cohesive qualities and makes it almost as satisfactory as concrete.
A Navy Department statement says that airstrips on a score of Pacific bases are alive and are kept so by continual applications of salt water, so offsetting the effect of fresh water rain.
Live coral for making the airfields is dug from the sea with power shovels, carry-alls and drag lines, mechanical means largely denied the Japanese, who have relied almost wholly on hand labour for the construction of their airfields on the islands they seized. In some cases they used dead coral in combination with cement, but even these fields cannot stand up under the heavier American aircraft.
NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 2 MAY 1944
