TABLE OF CONTENTS This next example is a steel landing mat product that was developed during World War II for the Air Force, and was used again in in the Korean Action, and again in Viet Nam.
The illustration in Fig. 7.1, and the following description was provided by the National Museum of the United States Air Force:
The pierced steel plank (PSP) or Marston Mat was developed during World War II and was widely used in every theater of operations. Though rigid enough to bridge over small surface inequalities of the ground, it was used to best effect on stabilized subgrade. This combination provided an adequate semi-permanent runway.
Studies were conducted during WW II to test the feasibility of using magnesium or aluminum, to provide equally strong mats weighing half as much. Some conception of the logistics problems of war can be gained from the fact that some 60,000 pierced steel sheets 15 inches by 10 feet are required for a 150 by 5000 foot runway, weighing nearly 2000 tons, requiring 35,000 cubic feet of cargo space to be shipped overseas perhaps ten or twelve thousand miles. A runway this size can be put down in 175 hours by 100 unskilled men.
During the Viet Nam war there were three steel companies in the United States that had prime contracts for the production of the landing mat Kaiser Steel had the contract on the West Coast, and your author provided consulting services on the roll...
