I have been thinking about JoeBob's post about needing his BOB bag and he said something about taking interstate hiways to leave out in a hurry. A vet that works with the state police told me several years ago, that, in the case of a major incident in the United States that the Interstates would be closed to the general public and used only for the Military/Feds. Also that the reason that there are flat straight stretches every so many miles was to be able to use them as temporary landing strips/airbases. Has anyone out there know anything about this?

I"ve also heard that the military has plans to use freeways as alternate landing strips. I think this goes back to "doomsday" type plans. I've never heard anything about the Feds stopping access to the freeways. Hopefully you would be on your way out of the area before the roads were closed to the public. I'd say that having good maps in your car and a backup plan would be a good idea.

Try this: http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/airstrip.asp

I thought this was true at one time, also.

--Chris

Not American roads, however the German Autobahn was design to be able to be used for landing planes.

In Botswana, <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> along the Zimbabwe border they have sections of road every 20 clicks that can be used by the Botswana Defence Force as landing strips. Make great places for emergency rest room stops. NIce and wide with clear view in case there are lion or elephant around during your stop. Gotta love Africa

Having made a lot of easy ovetime over the years watching them re-surface I-5, I can tell you that while your average run of the mill interstate might be able to support fighters and smaller aircraft, there is no way that they could support the weight of a C-17, 141, 5, etc. One of those big guys might make it down, but I doubt it could ever make it up again, it would sink right in...

Actually, the C-17 has a fairly light wheel loading - remember, part of the design specs was to be able to land at an unimproved (read DIRT) landing strip!!

Yes, using the flat interstate sections as emergency airstrips is true. Remember, the military has to have a plan for everything - it DOESN'T have to make sense. The interstates drew their inspiration from the pre-WWII German autobahns, which greatly impressed General Eisenhower. He also noted that even during the fall of Berlin, when it was completely surrounded, the Germans were able to fly in and out with their Short-Takeoff and Landing (STOL) Feiseler Storch aircraft, which used one of the broad boulevards in the center of the city as a runway.

I agree that it probably makes sense and it's certainly true that many other countries consciously used their highways as airstrips. But as far as I'm aware, there is no published specification or contingency plan that uses sections of the Interstates for that purpose.

Does anyone know of a stretch of Interstate that could actually be used as a military airstrip, even by WWII standards? I would suggest the minimum requirement would be: approximately 1 mile in length, completely straight, and as flat as possible - no more than a 1 degree rise (approximately 95 feet per mile). (I'm just guessing here, but a normal ILS approach is 3 degrees, it wouldn't make sense for the runway gradient to be as steep as the approach path itself.) Yeah, there are a couple of much steeper runways - there's one in the Himalayas that you could hold soap-box races on - but they're only usable by highly specialised aircraft, I believe.

I suspect that in the midwest, the whole Interstate could meet that description, whereas in Wyoming or Montana, it might be a bit more difficult.

Of course, at least until recently, Montana had no speed limit and there were a lot of Canadian yahoos who got stopped doing 120 mph. So the roads can't be all that bendy. (They didn't realise that Montana State Troopers had the power to ticket anyone who was driving at an unsafe speed, regardless of whether there was a posted limit or not. At least, I think that was the story - I've never been to Montana and I doubt if my car would do 120, even with a tailwind. <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> )

I understand that the LA river system was set up so that in the event of a disaster, the military could move vehicles from the port of LA up through the city with no issues of traffic getting in the way.
Supposedly built with proper clearance for the largest of military vehicles, at the time.
Perhaps it was an after thought, but it appears to make sense.
I have always seen the military trucks use the concrete riverbed during the monster movies.

global security has some interesting info on the highway system. I was told years ago, that many of the sections in the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming were intended to service returning strategic bombers that might not have bases to return to after a nuclear exchange. Fuel, more bombs and communications facilities would have been set up for their return in these sections. Supposedly, this was the hidden agenda beyond the massive funding of the system in the 50's/

According to a USMC (ret) buddy, Korea does the same thing. Highways go from 2 lane divided to six for a couple of miles, then back to two. Improvised airfields. As for the US, at least in the Mid Atlantic, I would purposely avoid the major thoroughfares and interstates. There are quie a few choke points that will strangle traffic. This is an everyday issue around DC, worse in the summer. Get a good map(s) for your area and expected routes. Take a day and drive some of the back roads. It is amazing how much time they can save. Figure out more than one route. How do you get off Long Island, NY (or any island). 9/11 many walked across the bridges. Are the ferrys going to run? The theme here is that most people will be on the "easy routes" or those few that they routinely use. In an incident that requires evac, I want to be away from the crowds as much as possible.

Thanks for all the responses. What williamlathan says is what I do on a regular basis. I have driven all over to get to the same spot just to check out the roads. My wife gets mad every time we go to my parents because she says I never take the same route twice.