I had not heard about Dugway as a landing site for the shuttle but I do remember that in the very early days, before shuttle had flown, there was talk of the Salt Flats being used as an emergency landing site. Remembering the stink BLM made about Kim's plan to drop a bowling ball onto the Salt Flats I wonder what they would have said to a shuttle landing out there. On 07 Feb 2012, at 16:40, Brent Watson wrote:
It is far from the longest runway in the US. It is not even the longest runway in Utah. It is 11,000 feet long. Salt Lake International has two 12,000 foot runways, and Hill Air Force Base is 13,500 feet long.
Both Edwards Air Force Base and Area 51 have runways in excess of 25,000 feet.
Patrick, have you ever been to Michael AAF (Dugway) or flown over it?
Yes, one time years ago. I dropped a load of skydivers onto the base and then landed at Michael to pick them up. They were not in the habit of talking to civilians back then so the only frequency their tower and my plane had in common was the emergency frequency 121.5. Also, I remember being on approach and seeing a black line painted across the runway. As I got closer the "line" turned out to be an arresting cable. I pulled up and landed further down the strip. Oh and there was also a B-29 parked off the side of the runway in the dirt. I learned later it had been used in atomic bomb testing and was still "hot". Apparently it has since cooled sufficiently as I'm told it is now on display at the Hill AFB aerospace museum. patrick