The Big Sweep
In a full-scale attack against military airports, runways might become unusable, especially near coastlines. As an alternative, air forces could use inland highways. Some nations even design sections of road specifically reinforced and graded for heavy aircraft. Last month in Taiwan the Ministry of National Defense cleared automotive traffic from the Jiadong Highway, had its soldiers sweep for debris, and conducted a day of flight tests with aircraft ranging from the CH-47 helicopter to the E-2K surveillance aircraft. Such highway drills began during the Cold War. In Germany in 1984, a section of the Bundesautobahn A29 near Ahlhorn was built with special markings and even an aircraft ramp. Tests by NATO involved the A-10 Thunderbolt and the C-130.
Taiwan Ministry of National Defense
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Comments (4)
That is a very quaint and old myth, that one in five miles of highway in the US can be used as runway in war time. It simply is not true.
Posted by John Bell on February 13,2012 | 09:11 AM
Great pics, especially the aerial of the highway ... rest stop in peacetime, maybe? But the plane in the link labeled F-16 isn't an F-16. Dunno what, but not a 16.
Posted by Don Lee on January 14,2012 | 03:09 PM
The airplane you have pictured taking off from the highway is not an F-16. That is a AIDC_F-CK-1 Ching-kuo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDC_F-CK-1_Ching-kuo
Posted by John on January 14,2012 | 08:14 AM
Well if I’m not mistaken, in the U.S. there was a rule when designing highways, that for every 5 miles of road, 1 mile has to be straight and level. All for the purpose of easily converting the highway into an air strip in case of war.
Posted by Sergio Sanchez on January 13,2012 | 01:43 PM