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Comment by rft | Hacker News Reader

A related tidbit of trivia: some highways around the world are intended as emergency airfields. It doesn't mean you can just stop traffic and land, you need to prepare the area, e.g. remove dividers, but it can be done relatively fast if needed.

Wikipedia has some info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_strip

At least here in Germany many were abandoned/removed, but you can still see traces around. The German Wikipedia on this topic has a list.

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At least in Finland and Sweden those highways-as-emergency-airfields are always in use, no need to prep the area or remove dividers in any way. They are mostly used by the army for practicing, basically the police will just close the road so the army can practice, and when the army is done the road is opened again.

https://moottori.fi/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Kesabaana23-T...

Plus the Swedish Gripen jet fighters are designed to operate off roads rather than requiring long, smooth runways, as well as be main†ained in the field.

Switzerland hides some of their jets in mountains and uses the highways as runways.

https://migflug.com/jetflights/hidden-swiss-air-force/

Swiss military is a really interesting topic from so many perspectives. With such a high percentage of the population trained and involved in the military the terrain was also supposed to massively aid asymmetrical warfare. Holding mountain passes with light troops if need be.

There were even some books that were discussed to become regular army manuals and had to be vetoed by the chief of staff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Resistance_(book) The article doesnt cite a source, but there are other sources claiming the same. https://www.fr.de/kultur/literatur/renne-fahrzeug-weg-109971... https://blog.tagesanzeiger.ch/historyreloaded/index.php/2401...

Pls be advice that depending on local law, you might be better off sticking to the wiki page.

>Nonetheless, the book remains part of the curriculum of the Swiss Army Military Academy at the ETH Zurich as one of the "classics of the history of strategy and the theory of war."[3]

I was going to reply "well, in the US this is law..."

The I stumbled onto this article[1] while looking for evidence to cite. It appears that I've been grossly mistaken.

[1] https://highways.dot.gov/public-roads/mayjune-2000/one-mile-...

I think if they aren't practicing using highways as runways, then they aren't really runways. They might have been designed at some point.

The US using highways never made sense since unlikely to need them, and have a ton of civil airfields that could be used. Using highways makes a lot of sense for Sweden and Finland that are under threat and doesn't have civil aviation.

https://www.mil-airfields.de/aa-world/highway-strips/index.h... has a list, but I swear I found a YouTube video (which I can't find now, of course) of a highway in South America (I think) that is actually used as a runway for "normal" government flights, and it has numbers painted on the road and everything, and all the police have to do is block the cars.

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