Ometepe, an island in Nicaragua also has this. There is virtually no traffic control either. You've just got to look both ways... and up, before you drive across it.
The runway of the main airport on the Shetland Islands (Sumburgh Airport[0]) also crosses one of the main roads (A970[1]). Access is controlled by a level crossing with barriers closed whenever a flight is taking off or landing. If you hire a car at the airport you get to drive over the runway (when the barriers are open) which is an unusual experience.
I would say it's near impossible to do accidentally. And If you did so deliberately it wouldn't be a major safety incident and you could expect some prison time or a large fine.
I've actually driven over this and didn't even remember it as you're so far from the airport buildings at that point. Unlike Gibraltar where it's actually rather busy
https://maps.app.goo.gl/disXPcTEh3GMfwAF8
For decades Taiwan has designed sections of its highways to be converted to military runways in the event of an attack by China. Here's a review with photos of a training exercise a few years ago:
The [Taiwan] Air Force sent four types of aircraft to participate in the exercise: a F-16V Fighting Falcon, a Mirage 2000-5 multi-role fighter jet, and Taiwan’s own Indigenous Defense Fighter. The jets took off and landed with weapons onboard—the F-16 carried two Harpoon anti-ship missiles, two AMRAAM medium-range air-to-air missiles, and two AIM-9 Sidewinder short-range air-to-air missiles. The same jet or another jet later landed on the improvised airstrip, minus the two Harpoon missiles.
Surely other countries have similar provisions in place, considering some of the first military facilities to be taken out in the event of a surprise attack are military runways.
I was about to mention what I heard many years ago about 1 mile in every 5 of US highways having to be straight, so that in emergencies it could be used as a runway, but I decided to google it first for a reference and it turns out it's an urban legend:
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/00mayjun/o...
I'm sure there are enough straight stretches that it could be done anyway. Seems that the Swedes practice on their highways with their Gripens regularly:
Yeah, in the Czech Republic (or especially the former Czechoslovakia), part of the main D1 highway (Prague-Brno) is designed as an alternate airfield.
Here is a (then-classified) 1980 army documentary about a large exercise on the highway (using MiG-21 and MiG-23 planes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDoZGoaG9_w (sorry, Czech only)
I wonder how they handle the support? It's not much use to land and take off warplanes if you can't also transport, load, and service weapons and also refuel the planes and fix any mechanical issues.
In Finland there are many roads that are extended and maintained as alternative "airfields", mainly for purposes of national defense but also as emergency landing sites for civilian craft
A taxi driver in Singapore told me that the highway in Singapore is also designed for planes to land on. My own observations indicated that this was plausible.
If by highway he meant the section of the East Coast Parkway that is straight and wide (the median has potted plants rather than planted trees), my recollection is that this is a myth, that section of the highway may have been intended for planes to land on in an emergency, but no longer. Unfortunately I do not have sources.
But if by highway he meant Lim Chu Kang road, then it's not just plausible: Lim Chu Kang road is actually used as an extra airstrip. The RSAF conducts regular exercises to ensure it can still be used as such, the last one being about 5 years ago [0]. There is an interesting video from 2009 on the subject too [1].
The town I grew up in, Gisborne New Zealand, had an airport that had a railway line crossing the runway. Perhaps unsurprisingly the trains had to give way to the planes.
After all, a plane can easily do a no-fault turn-around and can observe the train in a collision path from up above while the same cannot be said for a train.
In Seattle, we built the light rail down the middle of a main roadway. The train has to stop for red lights to let cars through. It's so backwards, it's ridiculous. Always fun when the train driver notices it late and slams on the brakes.
Gisborne had a population of about 30,000 at the time with just a handful of flights a day. I'm pretty sure as a pilot I wouldn't want to be looking out for incoming train traffic, especially in difficult weather conditions.
That may be sometimes/mostly (can pilots really spot a train in bad weather? is the train even visible from the air and not obscured by trees, buildings, in a tunnel?) true for planes landing, but not for planes taking off.
That’s interesting, I would’ve been concerned about what happens to the tires when a plane taking off/landing hits those tracks, but I guess it isn’t an issue.
They look small since they're next to big planes, but plane tires are actually quite big, so I'm not surprised they wouldn't have any trouble w/ the tracks.
It severely limits traffic, both air and land. There will be a tunnel for cars opening later this year. It is another kind of road rage sitting 45 minutes in a car in a queue when some dick decides to land with his private jet.
This doesn't seem like that much of a burden to endure.
There are many many places in the USA where vehicular traffic must defer to rail traffic at level crossings. Which can easily occur more often than 30x per week (30 number is from the article).
At some crossings it's not unusual to have a slow moving freight train take 15 minutes or more. How long is the road crossed for each plane? I'd expect 5 or 10 minutes max for a takeoff, I can understand they would want more time for a landing?
My understanding is it is legal for planes in Alaska to just land on a road. They have relatively few roads and many places are only accessible via plane, boat or some other alternative to cars (like dog sled) for at least part of the year. They have about six times as many pilots per capita as the rest of the US. Some of their little towns have amazingly minimal airport amenities and crudely constructed landing strips.
I sometimes post articles related to that but there seem to be relatively few good articles on that subject per se. Instead I end up posting articles sort of related, like where a small Alaskan community called everyone to show up with their vehicles to provide impromptu landing lights for a medical evacuation after dark when the lights were not working.
there's kind of no FAA rule specifically outlawing planes landing anywhere. There are restaurants in the US in rural parts of the mainland where planes land on a road and taxi right up to the parking lot like they're a car.
the rules are mostly around the pilot being responsible for respecting local laws, property owners (no trespassing) and the pilot being responsible for the safety of those in the plane and the road.
Sometime around 1980 I flew to Portland in a Cessna 172 to visit my family. I landed at Troutdale because who wants to deal with the traffic at PDX?
I'd called my mom from my refueling stop to give her an ETA and where to meet me. She parked her car on the wrong side of the runway, but why would that stop anyone?
As I taxied to the tiedown, I heard on the radio "Cessna 543 Whiskey Zulu, go around, woman crossing the runway."
Every year friends launch their float planes from the International Airport in Whitehorse, Yukon.
All the float planes are out of the water for winter freeze up, put on trailers. So in spring when the ice is gone you get a friend to drive down the runway full speed towing the trailer and plane, then take off directly from the trailer - there are no wheels on the floats and taking them on/off is a pain and not worth it.
My friend said it's always a little scary trying to remember how to fly for the first time in 9 months while being pulled behind a pickup truck at full throttle and around 180km/h. Because it's not tied down, he said if you're not on it, the plane just falls off the back of the trailer onto the runway - not good.
There's essentially a couple of days in spring when all the float planes around town do it, and a lot of fun to watch on a runway that has daily international flights around the world.
I came here to say “that sounds made up”. Then I did a Google video search for “Whitehorse airplane take off truck” and found: https://youtu.be/r5GAZC1YoCo. Must be a long runway!
Not only that but there is a huge rock cliff face (aka "The Rock") towering over the runway only perhaps 300m or so (?) to the side of the runway and water at both ends. Quite dramatic approach and landing compared to most airports that are typically in the middle of somewhere really flat.
That said I was mildly disappointed by gib - I thought it would be much more glamorous than it was considering its Mediterranean location and reputation for finance and gambling businesses. It kinda felt like Margate-in-the-med.
Gibraltar is pretty low key wahat comes to showing off money. Marbella, 100 km to Costa del Sol, is the European Miami where you will find Lambos, bodies and parties.
Readit News
[0] https://www.google.com/maps/@11.5238261,-85.7012237,1228m/da...
I crossed both of them :)
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumburgh_Airport
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A970_road
It isn't like they can really have a kerb or a fence stopping you...
I've actually driven over this and didn't even remember it as you're so far from the airport buildings at that point. Unlike Gibraltar where it's actually rather busy https://maps.app.goo.gl/disXPcTEh3GMfwAF8
The [Taiwan] Air Force sent four types of aircraft to participate in the exercise: a F-16V Fighting Falcon, a Mirage 2000-5 multi-role fighter jet, and Taiwan’s own Indigenous Defense Fighter. The jets took off and landed with weapons onboard—the F-16 carried two Harpoon anti-ship missiles, two AMRAAM medium-range air-to-air missiles, and two AIM-9 Sidewinder short-range air-to-air missiles. The same jet or another jet later landed on the improvised airstrip, minus the two Harpoon missiles.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a27633093...
Surely other countries have similar provisions in place, considering some of the first military facilities to be taken out in the event of a surprise attack are military runways.
also some additional details here: https://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/civil/were-u-s...
* https://www.blogbeforeflight.net/2020/04/swaf-gripen-pilots-...
Here is a (then-classified) 1980 army documentary about a large exercise on the highway (using MiG-21 and MiG-23 planes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDoZGoaG9_w (sorry, Czech only)
In Sweden you still come across widened roads that have aircraft landing markings on them. Marked Highway strip on this list.
https://www.mil-airfields.de/se/list.htm
But if by highway he meant Lim Chu Kang road, then it's not just plausible: Lim Chu Kang road is actually used as an extra airstrip. The RSAF conducts regular exercises to ensure it can still be used as such, the last one being about 5 years ago [0]. There is an interesting video from 2009 on the subject too [1].
[0] https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/planes-taking-over-li...
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBMD4QTSyqM
https://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/08/gisborne-airport-runwa...
After all, a plane can easily do a no-fault turn-around and can observe the train in a collision path from up above while the same cannot be said for a train.
The possibility of an at-grade crossing between a public road and an international airport runway was not even in the realm of imagination for me!
There are many many places in the USA where vehicular traffic must defer to rail traffic at level crossings. Which can easily occur more often than 30x per week (30 number is from the article).
At some crossings it's not unusual to have a slow moving freight train take 15 minutes or more. How long is the road crossed for each plane? I'd expect 5 or 10 minutes max for a takeoff, I can understand they would want more time for a landing?
I sometimes post articles related to that but there seem to be relatively few good articles on that subject per se. Instead I end up posting articles sort of related, like where a small Alaskan community called everyone to show up with their vehicles to provide impromptu landing lights for a medical evacuation after dark when the lights were not working.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgQIcK881es
Deleted Comment
the rules are mostly around the pilot being responsible for respecting local laws, property owners (no trespassing) and the pilot being responsible for the safety of those in the plane and the road.
I'd called my mom from my refueling stop to give her an ETA and where to meet me. She parked her car on the wrong side of the runway, but why would that stop anyone?
As I taxied to the tiedown, I heard on the radio "Cessna 543 Whiskey Zulu, go around, woman crossing the runway."
All the float planes are out of the water for winter freeze up, put on trailers. So in spring when the ice is gone you get a friend to drive down the runway full speed towing the trailer and plane, then take off directly from the trailer - there are no wheels on the floats and taking them on/off is a pain and not worth it.
My friend said it's always a little scary trying to remember how to fly for the first time in 9 months while being pulled behind a pickup truck at full throttle and around 180km/h. Because it's not tied down, he said if you're not on it, the plane just falls off the back of the trailer onto the runway - not good.
There's essentially a couple of days in spring when all the float planes around town do it, and a lot of fun to watch on a runway that has daily international flights around the world.
That said I was mildly disappointed by gib - I thought it would be much more glamorous than it was considering its Mediterranean location and reputation for finance and gambling businesses. It kinda felt like Margate-in-the-med.