Rumour: One Mile Out Of Every Five Of Us Highways Is Straight So Planes Can Land

[mnewbery]

Mmm, alcohol that great social lubricant. This one came up over drinks at Narromine.

 

The story goes that Dwight Eisenhower mandated that one mile in five of federal highway shall be straight so that planes can land. Lets see what the interwebs has to say about it:

 

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/00mayjun/onemileinfive.cfm

 

From that article (an excellent read):

 

(...) Under a provision of the Defense Highway Act of 1941, the Army Air Force and the Public Roads Administration (PRA), now the Federal Highway Administration, operated a flight strip program. In a 1943 presentation to the American Association of State Highway Officials, Commissioner of Public Roads Thomas H. MacDonald explained how it worked."A flight strip consists of one runway, laid down in the direction of the prevailing wind, and a shelter with telephone for the custodians at the site and for itinerant flyers in an emergency. Fuel storage facilities are not provided unless airplanes are based there permanently. Instead, oil companies will keep stocks of aviation gasoline at gas stations along the highway and truck it to the flight strip as it is needed."

 

The flight strips were designed for easy access to public highways and to provide unmistakable landmarks that could be followed easily by a pilot. Flight strips varied in size. The smallest — 150 feet (46 meters) wide and 4,000 feet (1,220 meters) long with the length increased by 500 feet (152 meters) for each 1,000 feet (305 meters) of elevation — were designed for tactical aircraft such as medium bombers. A larger flight strip could accommodate heavy bombers such as the B-17 and B-24, while still larger strips were designed for heavier classes of aircraft.

 

The benefits weren't expected to be entirely military. As MacDonald explained, "The close coordination of our highways and airways is becoming a vital necessity to assist the economic growth of this country."

 

In that spirit, Congress considered including a flight strip program in the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 — the law that authorized designation of a "National System of Interstate Highways." However, the 1944 act did not include the flight strip program.

Right, so no landing on the highways, only next to them, maybe, if the strips were ever built, which they weren't. The americans now refer to these pieces of real estate as "strip malls". Now the land has no value whatsoever to the aviator, the state or the propietors (*joke*).

 

Between PCDU and TAA, we figured it was possible to put traffic lights on a straight bit of highway near your town (any town, pick Sydney for example), clear out the obstacles like overpasses, street lights and greens voters then have the traffic lights pilot activated using the pre-existing PAL system. In the case of Sydney, since the traffic doesn't move anyway, being stuck at a red traffic light for 15 minutes waiting for the 9am REX flight from Tamworth or wherever to fly over your head at boufant height should be a pleasure.

 

This in comparison to staring at a sticker on the back of a sooty 20 year old HiLux Surf which reads "Horn not working, watch for finger" for the same amount of time.

 

So the next time you hear some dim witted counsellor drooling over the prospect of turning your favourite airfield into a nursing home/drag strip/gated community/theme park/strip mall, remind him that one day the RFDS or fire brigade is going to need to land in his/her town BADLY and the only place they can find might be the last two miles of straight highway on the edge of town.

 

If they don't have at least that, tell them to leave the airfield right where it is!