What do you call these?

S

Sidney Schwartz

Charter Member 2012
This is a GE pic of KPWT in Bremerton, WA. It was originally a WWII air base, and the remnents are clearly visible. I'm guessing that the areas I've outlined were parking areas for planes, and that there was/is some specific term used to describe them. Can someone enlighten me? :wavey:
 
Looks like Hot launch Pads for Alert fighters or bombers. Was this base in any way a SAC facility?
 
I have no idea at this point. I've been searching for information on the airfield but haven't turned up very much yet and don't know when it was decomissioned. Are these launch pads something you would find only at SAC facilities, or were they also common at WWII airfields?
 
Boy, you got me Sidney. I've never been to the other side of the airfield. Maybe I'll do some snooping tomorrow :icon_lol:
 
How about some Google Earth close-ups. I know it doesn't answer your question, but still nice to have a closer look.

Bare with me here. I got Google Earth as a Christmas gift. I haven't done much but look around. The picture thing is totally new to me :kilroy:


2010jan12007.jpg


2010jan12006.jpg
 
The correct term for those parking spots is hardstands, at least that's what we called 'em in the photo intel community. Bremerton National was an outlying field for NAS Seattle in WWII, it was probably used for "bouncing" (landing practice) and contingency aircraft dispersal. Those hardstands would be suitable for fighters and most twin-engine types like PBY's, B-25's, C-47's, etc.
 
I posted better shots.

Just an FYI, Anyone creating scenery for FS2004 that needs shots like posted above, I'd me more than happy to help out. This is just a toy for me.
 
I e-mailed a great uncle of mine who just e-mailed me back that Bremerton, WA US was a Bomber/Fighter Training field for the navy during WW2. Was also used by the Coastal Command in case of Japanese attacks. hardstands is what he called also called those parking spots.
 
I was thinking the general parking area with all of the hardstands was the "dispersal area" (so the a/c aren't wingtip to wingtip with several taken out with one bomb... who would do such a thing? I ask with some historical irony). If there were walls or earthworks encircling most of the hardstand, I would say it was a "revetment".
 
I have it on good authority that those are individual "Lovers' Lanes". The guys on the base did not want the other guys on the base to know that they were "parking" with the ugliest girl in town...so those little parking areas were bull dozed out of the woods...leaving enough trees between each of them so that one could not see from one parking spot to the next. The trees acted as screens...keeping Joe from seeing that Moe was making out with the ugliest girl in town.

Now the sad part of this all is that during that time, there was a family who lived close to the base....and this family had 17 girls in it...and they were all butt ugly and more than a bit free with the affections. These 17 girls tended to hang out at the pool hall were all the base staff went on their off hours...and all 17 girls were very familiar with the header panel material used in every make and model of car built in this country between 1922 and 1942.

Now, according to my dear old Grandpa...that is the honest truth...and he said if I didn't believe him I should ask my Grandma or one of her 16 sisters.

OBIO
 
adhockey said:
I was thinking the general parking area with all of the hardstands was the "dispersal area" (so the a/c aren't wingtip to wingtip with several taken out with one bomb... who would do such a thing? I ask with some historical irony). If there were walls or earthworks encircling most of the hardstand, I would say it was a "revetment".
Click to expand...
Adhockey, you are exactly right. And I was thinking those hardstands at the Bremerton airport are probably a bit larger than they appear but vegetation has covered over a lot of the pavement.
 
Man, what a bunch of wise asses. It's a good thing I'm a wise ass myself. :ernae:

Looks like hardstands is the consensus here, and I also saw it used in an article about WWII to describe these kinds of parking areas, so hardstands it is. I do like Gorak better, though. :mixedsmi:

Well, now that I've got all this information I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. I was actually in the process of finishing up a complete re-do of the default Bremerton in FS9, including the addition of the hardstands. Then today I just happened to find a version of Bremerton done by Mark Smith in 2004. It completely blows away my version, as he had photos of all the buildings to work from. I'm just going to junk mine. Lesson learned....before starting work on an airport, check and see if it's already been done. :redface: If I can contact Mark (his last upload seems to have been about four years ago), I'll ask his permission to just add the hardstands to his existing scenery.

Search the flightsim.com library for "Mark Smith" if you want to find his Bremerton scenery. He did a couple of other smaller airports too, including Valley View in Oregon that I also downloaded. The guy is GOOD. What a shame that he seems to have stopped doing scenery work.
 
Sid, suggestion

Sidney Schwartz said:
Man, what a bunch of wise asses. It's a good thing I'm a wise ass myself. :ernae:

Looks like hardstands is the consensus here, and I also saw it used in an article about WWII to describe these kinds of parking areas, so hardstands it is. I do like Gorak better, though. :mixedsmi:

Well, now that I've got all this information I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. I was actually in the process of finishing up a complete re-do of the default Bremerton in FS9, including the addition of the hardstands. Then today I just happened to find a version of Bremerton done by Mark Smith in 2004. It completely blows away my version, as he had photos of all the buildings to work from. I'm just going to junk mine. Lesson learned....before starting work on an airport, check and see if it's already been done. :redface: If I can contact Mark (his last upload seems to have been about four years ago), I'll ask his permission to just add the hardstands to his existing scenery.

Search the flightsim.com library for "Mark Smith" if you want to find his Bremerton scenery. He did a couple of other smaller airports too, including Valley View in Oregon that I also downloaded. The guy is GOOD. What a shame that he seems to have stopped doing scenery work.
Click to expand...

Mark Smith did a great job on the airport, but what would be nice to have is the Bremerton Navy yards. I have AI Navy ships comming and going from the yards to the open sea but the yards really need scenery added like the giant crane in the photo that was used to place the turrets in the battleships.
 
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