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100:, Sommerfeld tracking consisted of rolls 3.25 m (10 ft 8 in) wide by 23 m (75 ft 6 in) long. Mild steel rods threaded through at 9 inch intervals gave it strength. The rolls could be joined at the edges by threading flat steel bar through loops in the ends of the rods.
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It would appear that this method did have some limitations and there are various reports of airfields being out of use during heavy rainfall due to mud, and the fact that the tracking would lift off the ground. There are also anecdotal reports of it causing damage to aircraft, such as wheels being
134:) or coconut matting laid down. The Sommerfeld tracking was unrolled over the ground, pulled tight by a tractor, bulldozer, or similar vehicle, then fastened to the ground with angle-iron pickets. A typical runway made of Sommerfeld tracking was 3,000 feet (910 m) by 156 feet (48 m).
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engineer, Kurt
Joachim Sommerfeld, then living in Cambridge, England, was a lightweight wire mesh type of prefabricated airfield surface. First put into use by the British in 1941, it consisted of wire netting stiffened laterally by steel rods. This gave it load-carrying capacity while staying
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to make runways at their airfields, as it could be deployed quickly. In addition, some 44,500,000 yards of
Sommerfeld tracking was supplied to US forces by Britain in Reverse Lend-Lease.
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flexible enough to be rolled up. Kurt
Sommerfeld developed the track in the workshops of D.Mackay engineering based in East Road Cambridge. He worked on the design with Donald Mackay.
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244:, vol. XLVI, no. 1857, pp. 101–102, 27 July 1944 – via Flightglobal Archive
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256:, vol. XLIII, no. 1789, p. 367, 8 April 1943 – via Flightglobal Archive
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Rolls of
Sommerfield tracking can be seen in the foreground during a landing exercise at
279:'Magic Carpets' Help to Keep our Forces Moving, The War Illustrated, September 15, 1944.
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A jeep comes ashore onto
Sommerfield tracking during a landing exercise at
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laying
Sommerfield tracking in the sand during a landing exercise at
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189:, p. 506, 24 April 1953 – via Flightglobal Archive
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222:, p. 585, 1 June 1944 – via FlightGlobal Archive
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United States Patent US2338785 showing
Sommerfeld's design
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Smith, David J. "Britain's
Military airfields 1939-45"
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Sommerfeld tracking was used widely on RAF and USAAF
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126:The ground was cleared and, if swampy, a layer of
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103:Sommerfeld tracking was used extensively by the
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27:Prefabricated airfield surface
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268:Photo of Sommerfeld Tracking
238:"Airfield Roads and Runways"
183:"Sommerfield Tracking Claim"
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116:Advanced Landing Grounds
250:"North African Runways"
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45:, United States, 1942.
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216:"Reverse Lend-Lease"
299:Airport engineering
82:Sommerfeld tracking
18:Sommerfeld Tracking
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35:US Army Engineers
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288:Categories
205:1944 p 101
138:torn off.
86:expatriate
294:Airfields
132:coco peat
142:See also
107:in the
254:Flight
242:Flight
220:Flight
203:Flight
187:Flight
154:Notes
75:Devon
128:coir
96:lino
94:tin
122:Use
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