Marston Mat Alaska

Marston mat properly pierced or perforated steel planking psp is standardized perforated steel matting material developed by the united states at the waterways experiment station shortly before world war ii primarily for the rapid construction of temporary runways and landing strips also misspelled as marsden matting the nickname came from marston north carolina adjacent to camp.

Marston mat alaska.

Military aircraft landing mats and other cool surplus material handling equipment is available at coleman s. Marsden matting is standardized perforated steel matting material originally developed by the united states at the waterways experiment station shortly before world war ii primarily for the rapid construction of temporary runways and landing strips. Walking on marston matting. You won t find this stuff anywhere else.

Marston mat used for airfield construction during world war ii at alexai point landing field attu island alaska. According to drew van horne after ww2 wien alaska airlines operated 3 flights a week service with dc 3s to fairbanks with a stop in bettles the barrow naval arctic research laboratory was established in 1947. Marston mat also known as pierced or perforated steel planking psp is standardized perforated steel matting material originally developed by the united states at the waterways experiment station shortly before world war ii. Marston mat last updated june 12 2020 raf aircrew with one of their bristol beaufighters on a psp airstrip at biferno italy august 1944 332nd fighter group pilots discuss combat flying.

Marsden matting used for airfield construction during world war ii at alexai point landing field attu island alaska. Marston mat was extensively used during world war ii by army engineers and seabees construction battalions to build runways and other readily usable surfaces over all kinds of terrain. Marston was better than mud but a hard landing could bounce a small fighter 30 feet and heavy bombers made the mat ride up in waves. A 1945 photo of a bellanca on point barrow s marston mat from alaska s digital archive courtesy of drew van horne.

Marston mat more properly called pierced or perforated steel planking psp is standardized perforated steel matting material developed by the united states at the waterways. Airfields in alaska s aleutian chain pictured is tanaga started getting steel mat runways in 1942.