List of shortest runways

This is a list of the shortest airport runways in the world. While most modern commercial aircraft require a paved runway of at least 6,000 feet (1,800 m) in length, many early aircraft were designed to operate from unprepared strips that could be improvised in small spaces. Los Angeles's [[Grand Central Airport, considered a landmark in aviation history, had a 1,200-foot (370 m) runway during its first six years of operation from 1923 to 1929.[1] Such airstrips were used by heavy as well as light aircraft. During the Doolittle Raid in WW II, twin-engine B-25 bombers with a loaded weight of seventeen tons took off from the 827-foot (252 m) flight deck of the carrier USS Hornet.[2] As late as 1977 a Lockheed Constellation demonstrated its ability to use the 2,700-foot (820 m) runway of the Greenwood Lake Airport in New Jersey,[3] and in 1946, a lightened Constellation took off from a grass strip in 2,000 feet (600 m) on only three engines.[4] Most general aviation aircraft retain this short-field performance; the Cessna 172, the most produced aircraft in history, will take off in as little as 720 feet (220 m) when fully loaded.[5] Many small airfields capable of accommodating these types remain in use, mostly in remote areas in the American West and French Alps, where space is limited.