[JLO]

Hi, for folks like me and others who have never heard/nor seen a 'blast fence' can you explain a little bit more? (I'm picturing a regular chain link fence with plastic material covering it. I'm sure that's wrong, though.)

Thanks for a more visual:-)

[petuniasevan]

A portable "blast fence" is a curved piece of metal (think of a cross-section of very large drainpipe) on support stanchions. Blast fences are placed in areas where you would NOT want jet engine blast stirring up dust, creating turbulence (across a runway or apron), or blowing hot gases through a parking lot. The curve of the fence directs the jet wash upward.

The permanent type of blast fence is a solid-construction cement wall. It is raised slightly to allow airflow underneath to prevent its rigid construction from being overstressed.

This is a permanent blast fence:

The Navy uses a retractable blast fence aboard its carriers. Here's a photo:

It resembles a portable blast fence very much.

LARGE blast fences (used to deflect the jet wash from the tail engines on DC-10s and MD-11s:

This is very much like the blast fence I remember from Barksdale AFB, though it is twice as long:

[Mike4Freedom]

The pictures in post 14 are much better than I could do with words. The blast fences at Laguardia are large and thick concrete structures and they need to be.

Planes start their takeoff no more than 100 feet from the fence and the Grand Central Parkway (6 lane highway) is just a few hundred feet behind the fence.

LaGuardia has a pretty short runway for a commercial airport and they need to use every bit of it. In fact one of the runways is extended more than 1000 ft into Long Island Sound on a pier.

I had the experience many times of driving by while planes were landing over my head. They were so low that I instinctively ducked by head in my car as it crossed over. I often checked the roof for tire marks-:)