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Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

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Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#91
post #88

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 w…

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.

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#92
post #88

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 w…

Germany did the same during the cold war. Here is video of an exercise in 1988 (German commentary): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_cxkF6qSY8

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#93
post #28

Nauru's airport also crosses a road. https://wikitravel.org/en/Nauru

Does it actually? Looking at pictures and maps, I don't see any crossings between the runway and the road. There's an intersection, but it's not a crossing ; it'd only be useful for a plane going onto or off of the runway, not a car passing through.

Kinda: the round-island road goes between the airport terminal and the runway, meaning traffic needs to be stopped whenever planes are taxiing to/from the runway. You can see it here:

https://youtu.be/fK74uRoIqXg?t=502

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#94
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very specific "class" of aircraft. STOL. Short take off and landing. It's popular in the back country though.

Aren't all aircraft a specific class of aircraft?

Apart from UFOs

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#95
I visited (from the US) some years back when I was briefly living in Spain. We bused to La Linea (the Spanish border town), then walked across the border, then across the runway (after waiting for a plane), to get the main, touristy part of Gibraltar. Just added to the surreality of visiting such a visibly-known place.

Pic: https://flickr.com/photos/incanus/2428326403/in/album-721576...

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#96
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video demonstration of merging into traffic after a gas station pit stop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgQIcK881es

That's a very specific "class" of aircraft. STOL. Short take off and landing. It's popular in the back country though.

And in the case you have an aircraft not in that specific class and want to do it anyways...

Just strap some rockets to it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/JATO

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#97
post #53

I would be seriously worried about something falling off a car that the plane hits during takeoff

Not just cars, since it's a busy pedestrian crossing too. They actually run a street cleaner (well, I suppose a street cleaner/runway cleaner combo machine) each time after it's closed to car and foot traffic before a plane crosses it.

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#98
post #88

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 w…

Grippens are designed to land on highways in Sweden.

And its predecessor Viggen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_37_Viggen

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

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#99
post #88

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 w…

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... also some additional details here: https://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/civil/were-u-s...

Man that totally sounds real. I’d someone told me that I would 100% believe it!

Re: Gibraltar, world’s only airport runway intersecting a road

#100
post #87

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…

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 i…

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!
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