They had to sit there and rev the turbines while holding the wheel brakes for several minutes, to the point that the fuselage was visibly bobbing up and down and the wings were shaking, just to get that barge off the ground before the runway ran out. It’s impressive in a way, but it’s a caricature in a way, too. Overkill for overkill’s sake, especially the rear landing gear.
~Overkill for overkill’s sake, especially the rear landing gear.~
In fact these overkill landing gear makes perfect sense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6bKCsJd2K0
Overshooting runway is not a big problem.
I saw one in Las Vegas once. In reality, there were very few built. They do plan to make more.
One of the reasons for the very heavy duty landing gear is the USSR (and possibly Russian) requirement for military aircraft to be able to operate on semi-improved runways. Our planes would probably disintegrate while attempting to take off/land on many of their runways. Of course, there is a severe weight/performance penalty for this.