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. 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. As late as 1977 a Lockheed Constellation demonstrated its ability to use the 2,700-foot (820 m) runway of the Greenwoo