Evaluation of Washington Aluminum Company, Inc., Production AM2 Landing Mat

The investigation was conducted to evaluate the performance of AM2 landing mat from production-line fabrication. A test section, consisting of two clay subgrade items with different strengths and one sand item, was constructed and surfaced with the AM2 mat. The test section was subjected to traffic representing 1600 operational cycles of an aircraft having a 60,000-lb gross weight with a single-wheel main-gear assembly load of 27,000 lb and a 30-7.7 tire inflated to 400 psi. Based on the results obtained in this investigation, it is concluded that the AM2 mat will sustain 1600 cycles (188 coverages) of uniformly distributed aircraft operations with a 27,000-lb single-wheel load and 400-psi tire inflation pressure when placed on a clay subgrade having a CBR of 4.0 or greater, the AM2 mat will sustain 1600 passes of a 27,000-lb single-wheel load with 400-psi tire inflation pressure applied in a single path when placed on a clay subgrade having a CBR of 4.2 or greater, with slight core damage occurring in a small percentage of the planks, and the AM2 mat will sustain 1600 passes or 188 coverages of a 27,000-lb single-wheel load with 400-psi tire inflation pressure when placed on a loose sand subgrade. (Author)