I seem to remember reading in one of Robert Buck's books
that the airlines were grounded because the weather was
below take-off minimums at some airport in the east, perhaps
JKF. They had several 747s taxi on the runway and that
heated the air enough to raise the RVR to take-off minimums.
As soon as they all started taking off, the heat cleared the
runway.

The FAA tried to violate the crews for "weather
modification, taking off below minimums. They dropped the
case because it was stupid, the weather did improve.



--
James H. Macklin
ATP,CFI,A&P

".Blueskies." wrote in
message
. net...
|
| "T o d d P a t t i s t"
wrote in message
| ...
| : john smith wrote:
| :
| : The idea was to set out smudge pots along the sides of
the runway in a
| : manner similar to runway lights.
| : When there was heavy fog and it was necessary to land
aircraft, the
| : ground support crews would drive down the runway and
light all the
| : smudge pots.
| :
| : The system was known as FIDO - Fog Intensive Dispersal
Of.
| : It used perforated pipes along the runway and usually
burned
| : the local petrol supply. Problems were encountered in
the
| : early tests, but it was ultimately put to use and
developed
| : further after the war.
| :
| : A link showing it in use with a Lancaster bomber:
| :
http://www.fpp.co.uk/overflow/Dresde...ages/0042.html
| : --
|
|
| They did something similar with ground based jet engines
at Heathrow back in the '60s. Don't know the details...
|
|