MOTORWAYS AS RUNWAYS

[PR19_Kit]

Dare I at this point introduce the Harrier, operating from a tennis court?.............it would liven up Wimbledon if nothing else!

In 1969 No. 1 Sqdn. RAF flew two Harriers out of a COAL YARD nr St. Pancras Station in London during their attempts for the Daily Mail Trans-Atlantic Air Race. The air pollution had to be seen to be believed.....

[RLBH]

In 1969 No. 1 Sqdn. RAF flew two Harriers out of a COAL YARD nr St. Pancras Station in London during their attempts for the Daily Mail Trans-Atlantic Air Race. The air pollution had to be seen to be believed....

That was actually the second-best landing site in London for the race. The Royal Navy found it, deemed it unsuitable for landing a helicopter owing to the predictable visibility problems, and picked a building site right next to the Post Office Tower. Needing a tanker to get their Phantom across the Atlantic, they did a deal with the RAF, omitting to mention that the St Pancras site was knee-deep in coal.

Also, had World War 3 broken out, RAFG Harrier squadrons had plans to operate from supermarket car parks.

[PR19_Kit]

I reckon Horse Guards Parade would have been much the best site in Central London, except it was probably further away from the GPO Tower perhaps. I can't find the piccie of the Harrier doing the first lift-off THROUGH the cloud of coal smoke, it's really awe inspiring!

[rickshaw]

Smoke?  I didn't realise the Harrier's exhausts were that hot. 

[Rheged]

Smoke?  I didn't realise the Harrier's exhausts were that hot. 

I think that most of it was dust, but there was definitely smouldering after the Harrier left. Raymond Baxter (now there was a first rate commentator) commented on it.

"Also, had World War 3 broken out, RAFG Harrier squadrons had plans to operate from supermarket car parks."

1 squadron RAFG    sponsored by ALDI ?

[rickshaw]

Smoke?  I didn't realise the Harrier's exhausts were that hot. 

I think that most of it was dust, but there was definitely smouldering after the Harrier left. Raymond Baxter (now there was a first rate commentator) commented on it.

"Also, had World War 3 broken out, RAFG Harrier squadrons had plans to operate from supermarket car parks."

1 squadron RAFG    sponsored by ALDI ?

"Where did you buy that?"
"Woolworths!" 

[McColm]

What about all those small pebbles, the damage they would cause, bad enough with the Kings Troop pulling gun  carriages?
F.O.D.

[philp]

Still have plans to do a Swiss F-5 crossing traffic.

http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6327256&nseq=5

[rickshaw]

Other Swiss aircraft, this time F/A-18s

[Fulcrum]

Wow... wonder what it does to a rush hour traffic jam.

Of course, it could cut down the number of instances of road rage... or make them interesting using them(imagine getting cut off by one of them).

[MAD]

Montana Highway 16 from Culbertson to Medicine Lake had not so much as a bend over its 20+ miles for the first 50 or so years of its existance.    One could put some fanciful large, very high speed Republic interceptors designed to thwart the Russians in the farmer's barns yes?   Especially since Med. Lake is only about 35 miles south of the Canadian/US border and the road runs perfectly north/south.

Yes, they changed the road up a bit adding a bend here and there for safety's sake.   

Made me smile  - in Britain they're usually taking bends out for safety's sake....

Downunder, if we don't add bends, people go to sleep:

I hear you brother 

M.A.D

[tahsin]

In the debate which aircraft had to go , the Jaguar proponents hit the Harrier brigade with how during an exercise , the jumpjets had to be extra careful against FOD  in Cairo North which would have properly swept runways , one presumes .

[Nick]

Made me smile  - in Britain they're usually taking bends out for safety's sake....

Downunder, if we don't add bends, people go to sleep:

Where exactly is this stretch of road?
British motorways curve because they follow the landscape and not, as some assume, to keep drivers awake. A lot of country roads have been straightened out to make them safer and often the old road is left for a rest area.

There is a stretch of Autobahn in Germany that has been closed after just 20 years to make way for the opencast coal mine next door. The highway is being rebuilt 5kms away.

[Nick]

Sub-Brit had this same topic last month and this was my input.

Many years ago I was intrigued by the pillboxes around Epping. At North Weald I explored a couple of air-raid shelters in my pre-Sub-Brit days. I then wondered how many airfields there were and plotted the location of every UK Second World War airfield, airport and landing strip on a 1995 road atlas using info from OS maps and After the Battle publications. I eventually found over 600 sites.
Postwar many of these were quickly returned to farm fields but all through the 1950s and 60s many of the remainder were still active RAF, Royal Navy, USAF or British Army sites. That many of these were disposed of during the Cold War suggests that building landing strips into British motorways was not a concern.

Several motorways were actually built on former runways and airfields. I suspect this was a ploy to use Government land without having to pay more to local landowners!
M4 at Membury services
M5 at Moreton Valence (former Gloster Aircraft factory and then proposed for motorway services)
M5 at Hucclecote (former Hawker Siddeley factory)
M8 at Renfrew
M11 at North Weald
M11 at Duxford (Imperial War Museum)
M56 at Stretton
M62 at Burtonwood

In many other UK locations roads were reinstated on former airfields and in some cases the authority simply re-routed the road to use the hardcore of the old runways or taxiways. Examples include the A15 at Elsham Wolds, the A372 at Weston Zoyland, Kimbolton, and my local favourite at Matching Green where the winding country lane is actually part ex-runway, part perimeter track and part aircraft dispersal site!

My first overseas Sub-Brit trip was to the Gothenburg underground aircraft hangars, aka the Aeroseum. Our guides pointed out how the aircraft had a choice after emerging into daylight of either using the runway or the nearby highway, this from either of the subterreanean entrances.

German Autobahn landings 1984, Exercise Nordholz, carried on the soon to be opened A29 at Ahlhorn, south of Großenkneten.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aWCN08H1BQ

[rickshaw]

Where exactly is this stretch of road?

Either in the Northern Territory or on the Nullabor Plain.  Not sure which.  I've seen a better example but can't find the photo it shows the road, straight as a die for a long distance and then there is a deliberate kink in it.  and then it continues on along the original bearing.

British motorways curve because they follow the landscape and not, as some assume, to keep drivers awake.

Well, if there was something worth following on the landscape, I don't doubt the road builders would have followed it.  When you have a land that is flat as a tack for thousands of kilometres its just as easy to take a bearing and follow it.  The "Gun Barrel Highway" from Woomera to the NW coast was built exactly that way, as that was the flightpath for rockets being tested and it is indeed, basically gun barrel straight!