4 ms·

One of the coolest emergency airfields I can think of is, literally, Uruguay Route 9, along the coast of the country, where a 2-lane highway becomes an enormous

One of the coolest emergency airfields I can think of is, literally, Uruguay Route 9, along the coast of the country, where a 2-lane highway becomes an enormous runway that you continue driving along. I don't know if there were any famous landings there; I heard it's only used rarely by the Presidential jet. Here's where it is: https://goo.gl/maps/fpwxuPzGVDtDEKmB8 https://goo.gl/maps/fpwxuPzGVDtDEKmB8 and what it looks like when you drive on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C5LSrRkFyU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C5LSrRkFyU

Piskvorrr 4y ago
Not that uncommon. The Czech motorway D1 can be converted to a military airstrip here: https://www.google.com/maps/@49.3870307,15.9211894,289m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e4 https://www.google.com/maps/@49.3870307,15.9211894,289m/data... See where the grass divider ends, and gets replaced by a jersey barrier for 2 km? That part is the runway - it would require some hours of preparation before it would be usable, it's not quite "declare mayday and dump the plane there."
- noduerme 4y ago
  ah, that's very cool. Makes me think of all kinds of NATO-level shit that's strewn around the world waiting to be uncovered ;) The thing with the road in Uruguay is that as you're driving, there's basically a yellow sign with a picture of an airplane and an arrow pointing up, and you're like "what the fuck did that mean?" And then suddenly you understand exactly what it meant because you're driving on a fucking runway...
  - Piskvorrr 4y ago
    As in, "give way to aircraft from above" :D
  - dalkvist 4y ago
    Sweden had/has roads onthe middle of nowhere/forest that has more free space on the sides and at each end of particularly strate and flat stretches, there are oversized parking spots. Supposedly so fighter planes could refuse and rearm from mobile crews
    - jabl 4y ago
      Finland has plenty of those too. Here's a video of an F-18 doing a landing and takeoff from such a stretch of road during some exercise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj_eJxy8ojk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj_eJxy8ojk
  - Arnt 4y ago
    The ones I've been on weren't signposted at all. You're just on a road, and suddenly the road is completely straight and very wide, and 3km later it's back to normal, and there's nothing visible nearby. I googled and found a list on https://www.mil-airfields.de/se/list.htm https://www.mil-airfields.de/se/list.htm but IIRC there must be something further northwest, not on the list.
  - mormegil 4y ago
    The Czech one is more of a Warsaw-Pact-level shit. :-) Here is a (originally secret) documentary video about MiG-21 exercise on the highway (in Czech, obviously): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDoZGoaG9_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDoZGoaG9_w
- pxmpxm 4y ago
  Wrong spot, I'm pretty sure youre thinking of Vyškov https://www.google.com/maps/@49.2936699,17.0223332,1311m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@49.2936699,17.0223332,1311m/dat...
  - Piskvorrr 4y ago
    And I'm absolutely sure I wasn't: two different spots, both near military airbases, this one is somewhat longer than the Vyškov one. Personally drove on both of them, many times. Can't find an English source though: https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leti%C5%A1t%C4%9B_M%C4%9B%C5%99%C3%ADn https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leti%C5%A1t%C4%9B_M%C4%9B%C5%9...
    - pxmpxm 4y ago
      Hmmm is that the one with the windmill rest stop thingy nearby?
      - Piskvorrr 4y ago
        Not aware of a windmill. The one I originally referenced has a McDonalds these days :D
madaxe_again 4y ago
Hah! I was driving down this route a few years back when I suddenly found myself on an airstrip along with all the other traffic. It was particularly bizarre given that I’d just driven down from tacuarembo to punta del Diablo on largely unpaved roads. That said, it’s not the first road doubling up as a landing strip I’ve found myself on - there’s a stretch of the main road between Donetsk and Mariupol that was, in soviet times, used as an emergency field for strategic bombers. It’s this relatively quiet provincial highway that suddenly turns ridiculously wide, and goes dead straight and level for what feels like an eternity - 11km looking at google. Oh, and RAF manston used to have a level crossing across a taxiway.
- oxryly1 4y ago
  That’s quite a variety of locales to find yourself driving in. What took you to all those places?
  - madaxe_again 4y ago
    Wanderlust.
irthomasthomas 4y ago
This it? Looks like traffic stopped for a presidential landing. https://youtube.com/shorts/GQWtCBUlXq0 https://youtube.com/shorts/GQWtCBUlXq0
Stratoscope 4y ago
Interesting! Here is a closer view of the Runway 03 threshold: https://goo.gl/maps/5JE2YpEh75V52coR6 https://goo.gl/maps/5JE2YpEh75V52coR6 And Runway 21 (the same runway in the opposite direction): https://goo.gl/maps/2TDPFFNqbW1CSCGA8 https://goo.gl/maps/2TDPFFNqbW1CSCGA8
wasmitnetzen 4y ago
There's a YouTube video[1] of the German Armed Forces showing an emergency airfield on a German Autobahn from 1988. It's subtitled, but only in German. Autotranslation is available though. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_cxkF6qSY8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_cxkF6qSY8
rejectfinite 4y ago
A lot of roads are runways for JAS Gripen in Sweden/EU :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-2Xde54xz4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-2Xde54xz4
el-salvador 4y ago
The Panamerican Road in El Salvador has an airfield like this too. It's next to a military base. I've never heard of it being used, maybe it was during the civil 80s civil war. https://www.google.com/maps/@13.7720949,-89.3716038,3a,40y,169.18h,88.54t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sAF1QipMzqqcroBkOQKpaTXx92MHDp2H2EX-hvK9eSeke!2e10!7i1080!8i1920 https://www.google.com/maps/@13.7720949,-89.3716038,3a,40y,1...

Piskvorrr 4y ago

Not that uncommon. The Czech motorway D1 can be converted to a military airstrip here: https://www.google.com/maps/@49.3870307,15.9211894,289m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e4 https://www.google.com/maps/@49.3870307,15.9211894,289m/data... See where the grass divider ends, and gets replaced by a jersey barrier for 2 km? That part is the runway - it would require some hours of preparation before it would be usable, it's not quite "declare mayday and dump the plane there."

noduerme 4y ago
ah, that's very cool. Makes me think of all kinds of NATO-level shit that's strewn around the world waiting to be uncovered ;) The thing with the road in Uruguay is that as you're driving, there's basically a yellow sign with a picture of an airplane and an arrow pointing up, and you're like "what the fuck did that mean?" And then suddenly you understand exactly what it meant because you're driving on a fucking runway...
- Piskvorrr 4y ago
  As in, "give way to aircraft from above" :D
- dalkvist 4y ago
  Sweden had/has roads onthe middle of nowhere/forest that has more free space on the sides and at each end of particularly strate and flat stretches, there are oversized parking spots. Supposedly so fighter planes could refuse and rearm from mobile crews
  - jabl 4y ago
    Finland has plenty of those too. Here's a video of an F-18 doing a landing and takeoff from such a stretch of road during some exercise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj_eJxy8ojk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj_eJxy8ojk
- Arnt 4y ago
  The ones I've been on weren't signposted at all. You're just on a road, and suddenly the road is completely straight and very wide, and 3km later it's back to normal, and there's nothing visible nearby. I googled and found a list on https://www.mil-airfields.de/se/list.htm https://www.mil-airfields.de/se/list.htm but IIRC there must be something further northwest, not on the list.
- mormegil 4y ago
  The Czech one is more of a Warsaw-Pact-level shit. :-) Here is a (originally secret) documentary video about MiG-21 exercise on the highway (in Czech, obviously): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDoZGoaG9_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDoZGoaG9_w
pxmpxm 4y ago
Wrong spot, I'm pretty sure youre thinking of Vyškov https://www.google.com/maps/@49.2936699,17.0223332,1311m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@49.2936699,17.0223332,1311m/dat...
- Piskvorrr 4y ago
  And I'm absolutely sure I wasn't: two different spots, both near military airbases, this one is somewhat longer than the Vyškov one. Personally drove on both of them, many times. Can't find an English source though: https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leti%C5%A1t%C4%9B_M%C4%9B%C5%99%C3%ADn https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leti%C5%A1t%C4%9B_M%C4%9B%C5%9...
  - pxmpxm 4y ago
    Hmmm is that the one with the windmill rest stop thingy nearby?
    - Piskvorrr 4y ago
      Not aware of a windmill. The one I originally referenced has a McDonalds these days :D

madaxe_again 4y ago

Hah! I was driving down this route a few years back when I suddenly found myself on an airstrip along with all the other traffic. It was particularly bizarre given that I’d just driven down from tacuarembo to punta del Diablo on largely unpaved roads. That said, it’s not the first road doubling up as a landing strip I’ve found myself on - there’s a stretch of the main road between Donetsk and Mariupol that was, in soviet times, used as an emergency field for strategic bombers. It’s this relatively quiet provincial highway that suddenly turns ridiculously wide, and goes dead straight and level for what feels like an eternity - 11km looking at google. Oh, and RAF manston used to have a level crossing across a taxiway.

oxryly1 4y ago
That’s quite a variety of locales to find yourself driving in. What took you to all those places?
- madaxe_again 4y ago
  Wanderlust.

irthomasthomas 4y ago

This it? Looks like traffic stopped for a presidential landing. https://youtube.com/shorts/GQWtCBUlXq0 https://youtube.com/shorts/GQWtCBUlXq0

Stratoscope 4y ago

Interesting! Here is a closer view of the Runway 03 threshold: https://goo.gl/maps/5JE2YpEh75V52coR6 https://goo.gl/maps/5JE2YpEh75V52coR6 And Runway 21 (the same runway in the opposite direction): https://goo.gl/maps/2TDPFFNqbW1CSCGA8 https://goo.gl/maps/2TDPFFNqbW1CSCGA8

wasmitnetzen 4y ago

There's a YouTube video[1] of the German Armed Forces showing an emergency airfield on a German Autobahn from 1988. It's subtitled, but only in German. Autotranslation is available though. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_cxkF6qSY8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_cxkF6qSY8

rejectfinite 4y ago

A lot of roads are runways for JAS Gripen in Sweden/EU :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-2Xde54xz4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-2Xde54xz4

el-salvador 4y ago

The Panamerican Road in El Salvador has an airfield like this too. It's next to a military base. I've never heard of it being used, maybe it was during the civil 80s civil war. https://www.google.com/maps/@13.7720949,-89.3716038,3a,40y,169.18h,88.54t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sAF1QipMzqqcroBkOQKpaTXx92MHDp2H2EX-hvK9eSeke!2e10!7i1080!8i1920 https://www.google.com/maps/@13.7720949,-89.3716038,3a,40y,1...