>> 3)  Do aircraft ever use air bags for the humans ?  Do they
>>     ever use air bags for the belly or nose of the aircraft ?

> No, and no. Equipment is severe weight penalty.

Technically, that should be "no and yes" (historical footnote).

In the late 1950's, US Air Force expected to have to fight a
another major war and expected that airbases & runways would
be early, high priority targets.  So they looked for a way of
launch jet aircraft without runways?

They experimented with launching fighters (F-84 & F-100) from
back of trucks via large strap-on rocket booster.  Zero length
runway -- well, actually, it was about a 2-3" long runway.
That part worked pretty well.

Once the fighter was airborne, how do you get it back down?

They came up with a large (300' long) ground-deployed air bag
plus arresting gear (hook on aircraft, cable on ground).  It
was actually tested once or twice.  It didn't work well.  Too
much kinetic energy in the aircraft/pilot tuple. :-)

As I recall, the "air bag landing" was dropped and replaced
with the pilot bailing out at the end of the mission.

						Lee Jones

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