[HN Gopher] Abandoned and little-known airfields
___________________________________________________________________
Abandoned and little-known airfields
Author : Stratoscope
Score : 217 points
Date : 2023-08-29 08:19 UTC (14 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.airfields-freeman.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.airfields-freeman.com)
| spelunker wrote:
| I live near the site of the old Lowry AFB in suburban Denver. I
| remember when the base was shut down, but not much beyond that
| because I was pretty young. Those photos of when it was in
| operation are incredible. Thank you for sharing!
| hammock wrote:
| Meigs Field, Chicago's third, downtown airport is my favorite:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meigs_Field
| sokoloff wrote:
| The (IMO) illegal destruction of that airfield is the reason
| I've vowed to never again voluntarily spend money in Chicago. I
| only flew in there a handful of times, but it was amazing to
| fly in and walk 10 minutes over to the Loop.
|
| Mayor Daley decided he didn't have to follow the law and his
| city doesn't want my money, so I don't want to force it upon
| them...
|
| https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/ten-years-later-daleys-...
| hammock wrote:
| Some awesome photos from OP website http://www.airfields-
| freeman.com/IL/Airfields_IL_Chicago_C.h...
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| Incredible thing to hold a decades long grudge over. It's a
| park, music venue, nature preserve, and part of the museum
| campus now. All of which I have to assume is better for the
| residents than an airport, however visitors may feel about
| it.
| sokoloff wrote:
| If that's what the residents want and they're okay having
| paid the fines for the city's illegal actions, I'm happy to
| let them enjoy the park without crowding it by my presence
| or tourism money.
| ryandrake wrote:
| The worst part is: Once an airport gets torn down, it's lost
| forever. It never gets re-built. And we basically don't build
| new airports in the USA anymore. Can anyone remember the last
| time a new airport was built (outside of people building
| private dirt airstrips on their 20 acre ranch in Idaho)? As
| population centers shift and housing gets built, people move
| in next to noisy airports and then say to themselves "Holy
| shit, I moved next to an airport and it's loud. How could I
| have known? Surely this is the airport's fault!" and they go
| complain to their city.
|
| A little public airport with a nice asphalt runway in my
| hometown recently went up for sale, and the price was within
| striking distance of what I could afford as an investment,
| but I chickened out and failed to pull the trigger. It would
| have meant moving across the country to manage it and
| convincing my company to let me work remotely (this was just
| before COVID when WFH suddenly became normalized). Sadly some
| shitty developer bought the plot and promptly closed the
| runway and facilities so he could build whatever shit he's
| going to build. Big regret.
| hammock wrote:
| >Can anyone remember the last time a new airport was built
|
| Denver, 1995
|
| Northwest Florida, 2010
| sokoloff wrote:
| > "Holy shit, I moved next to an airport and it's loud. How
| could I have known? Surely this is the airport's fault!"
|
| I think it's slightly _worse_ than that. People buy a
| property for cheap[er than elsewhere] _because it 's close
| to an airport_ and then complain that their house is
| impacted by the noise from the airport and want to close
| the airport.
| acwan93 wrote:
| >As population centers shift and housing gets built, people
| move in next to noisy airports and then say to themselves
| "Holy shit, I moved next to an airport and it's loud. How
| could I have known? Surely this is the airport's fault!"
| and they go complain to their city.
|
| Harrison Ford makes a similar case about KSMO and why it's
| important to continue investing in general aviation.
|
| >"Of course then they do a survey among Santa Monica
| voters. 'What are the ten things that most need to be
| done?' Number ten on their list is to get rid of the
| airport. But number one on their list is traffic
| congestion. [Lowers chin, raises eyebrows, points at me.] I
| rest my case."
|
| https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a43965150/harr
| i...
| ThinkingGuy wrote:
| Famous among non-pilots as the default airport in early
| versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator.
| wing-_-nuts wrote:
| Apparently, my hometown had an airfield associated with the local
| country club. I was pretty shocked to see pictures of people with
| nice cars at a time when my great grandfather was still traveling
| to town with a mule and buggy. Wow.
| username135 wrote:
| The color scheme on that site is horrendous
| mindcrime wrote:
| One that I guess would fit into the "little known" category would
| be Bear Pen Airport[1] in Brunswick County NC. The facility is
| owned by the NC Forestry Service for use in firefighting efforts.
| But as far as I know it's very rarely (if ever) used anymore. As
| the linked notes say:
|
| _- FACILITY USED BY NC FOREST SVC FOR FIRE CONTROL._
|
| _- NOT MAINTAINED DURING OFF SEASON; USE NOT RECOMMENDED DURING
| FIRE SEASON._
|
| [1] https://www.airnav.com/airport/NC43
| KineticLensman wrote:
| Interesting to find out if there is a UK equivalent. We have a
| _lot_ of historic airfields, partly as a legacy of the many that
| were constructed in WW2. Where these have been redeveloped for
| housing, a clue to the old purpose is often that many of new
| streets are named for old aircraft.
|
| I used to work at a Plessey [0] site that was built on an old
| airfield near Christchurch UK, along with a housing state. Street
| names include Brabazon, Halifax, De Havilland, The Runway,
| Sunderland, Catalina and Comet. Amusingly, when Siemens acquired
| Plessey [1], a team of senior Germans visited the site. They
| presented the management with a book of WW2 Luftwaffe photo-
| reconnaissance imagery (!) on which the old airfield was
| featured, saying IIRC "We didn't get you then, but we've got you
| now!".
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plessey
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plessey#GEC_Siemens_takeover
| gokhan wrote:
| https://www.forgottenairfields.com/country-united-kingdom-13...
| martinclayton wrote:
| Might be in here:
|
| https://www.ukairfieldguide.net/airfields/Christchurch-flyin...
| HeckFeck wrote:
| Now this jogs a memory for me. There was an abandoned airfield
| in tyrone called Cluntoe Airfield, much of it bumpy and grown
| over. It didn't deter some of us from trying our our newly-
| acquired driving skills, even attempting a race which didn't
| last long due to potholes.
|
| The BBC has an article on it:
| https://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/yourplaceandmine/tyron...
|
| It has quite the history too, with it originally being built by
| the RAF in 1940 before being handed over to the USAAF.
| arethuza wrote:
| I found this page that has a map of WW2 airbases in the UK:
|
| https://www.rotary-ribi.org/clubs/page.php?PgID=632446&ClubI...
|
| edit: I thought there were quite a few of these in the part of
| Scotland where I grew up - nothing compared to the number in
| the south east of England!
| LastWeekendWas wrote:
| > nothing compared to the number in the south east of
| England!
|
| An honourable mention to RAF Bradwell.
|
| One of the nearest to the coast, it had more than it's fair
| share of shot up aircraft returning from raids and crash-
| landing..... and consequently, has the most bizarre war
| memorial.
|
| https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/22373
| arethuza wrote:
| "THIS MEMORIAL HAS BEEN/ ERECTED IN MEMORY OF/ THE 121
| MEMBERS OF THE/ ALLIED AIR FORCES WHO IN/ ANSWER TO THE
| CALL OF DUTY/ LEFT THIS AIRFIELD TO FLY/ INTO THE BLUE
| FOREVER"
| Arrath wrote:
| > and consequently, has the most bizarre war memorial.
|
| The plane is so tired it just face planted and settled in
| for a rest.
| martinclayton wrote:
| Thanks for the link. I couldn't see Woodley in there: where
| Douglas Bader crashed, the home of Miles Aircraft, and also
| very close to where I lived as a child. Which led me to this
| one that might also be of interest:
|
| https://www.ukairfieldguide.net
|
| Woodley specifically:
|
| https://www.ukairfieldguide.net/airfields/Woodley
| cs02rm0 wrote:
| I think there are probably quite a lot missing. Long
| Marston and St. Athan for two.
| zh3 wrote:
| I stumbled across Wisley Airfield [0] one day - very strange,
| doing a long bike ride across London, I plotted a route that
| avoided main roads and suddenly found myself in the middle of a
| mile-long runway. Right next to the A3 and RHS Gardens at
| Wisley, not a lot of people know about it. There's a public
| bridleway across it, no problem for anyone who wants to
| explore; last time I went past, there was armco across the
| runway which I think might be to stop illicit drag races.
|
| [0]
| https://www.google.co.uk/maps/search/wisley+airfield/@51.303...
| mzi wrote:
| Here in Sweden we have a lot of (military) airstrips that are
| incorporated into the public road network.
|
| It's always strange when you bike on a rural road and it
| broadens to a four lane motorway straight ahead for a
| kilometer, and then it narrows again and meanders on.
|
| An example: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZCQ6rEk7W5jkHBZw7
| dmoy wrote:
| I see local motor enthusiasts are well aware of that spot
| lol
| zh3 wrote:
| When they were building the M25 motorway around London
| (about 120 miles for the loop) there were large sections
| that were built and not yet open to the public - much fun
| was had on fast motorbikes late at night! Though once the
| whole thing was open, it all got out of hand [0]. Having
| said that, back then you weren't risking serious jail
| term for high 3 figure speeds (on top of the risk of
| losing your licence, and potentially your life).
|
| [0]
| https://www.classicdriver.com/en/article/1980s-motoring-
| exce...
| twic wrote:
| In the grass north of the runway, you can see a pattern of
| scars, all the same length, mostly orthogonal, and a few
| diagonal. These are almost surely archaeological trial
| trenches:
|
| https://www.borderarchaeology.com/services/archaeological-
| ev...
|
| Often these are dug to evaluate land before it is built on,
| in case there is important ancient stuff that will be
| disrupted or buried. That hints that the airfield may be
| about to be redeveloped.
| zh3 wrote:
| You are very likely right; every few years I look it up to
| see what's happened to such a large chunk of undeveloped
| land right next to one of the main A roads into London.
| Here's the current first hit on Google (for me):-
|
| https://www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/new-homes/ockham/wisley-
| airfi...
| azornathogron wrote:
| > They presented the management with a book of WW2 Luftwaffe
| photo-reconnaissance imagery (!) on which the old airfield was
| featured, saying IIRC "We didn't get you then, but we've got
| you now!".
|
| And people say the Germans don't have a sense of humour!
| thombat wrote:
| A German colleague tells this joke, in his best exaggerated
| war-movie accent:
|
| How many Germans does it take to change a lightbulb?
|
| Just one. We Germans are very efficient and have no sense of
| humour.
| kypro wrote:
| > Interesting to find out if there is a UK equivalent.
|
| Yes same! I live next to an old airfield that we used to bike
| around as kids. They've built on some of it over the last
| couple of decades, but most of the old runway is still there.
|
| They're planning to turn it into a housing estate which is a
| bit sad... Everyone around here knows the field is there, but
| most of people don't realise it used to be an airport - at
| least when I talk to people about it they always seem surprised
| when I tell them the history. It was a fairly major airport at
| the time though and strategically important during WWII.
|
| I'm working on a startup at the moment to help people learn
| about their local history and also share any information and
| old photos they might have. Old WWII sites like airfields,
| pillboxes, bunkers, gun batteries, etc I think will be some of
| the more interesting use cases. Wish I had something to share,
| but it's still quite early in development. What I will say is
| that this is a more general problem beyond old airfields - the
| UK has lots of cool places to explore like abandoned railways,
| hill forts and long barrows, but none of them are particularly
| easy to find or get information about.
| iamflimflam1 wrote:
| Reminds me of a Spike Milligan anecdote. He attended a reunion
| from the Italy campaign with the opposing Germans. One of them
| left a note saying "sorry I missed you last time"
|
| Proving that Germans do actually have a sense of humour.
| cjrp wrote:
| When you look at these ex-airfield housing estates from above,
| you can usually spot the telltale triangle pattern where the
| runways used to be.
| Steve44 wrote:
| The Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust [1] website seems
| to have quite a few of the older and closed airfields.
|
| [1] https://www.abct.org.uk/airfields/airfield-finder/
| michaelt wrote:
| There's a list and history in [1] - apparently in 1945 there
| were 720 airfields in the UK. Most of them subsequently closed,
| or converted for civil operation.
|
| The legacy of WW2 means, to this day, the UK has more active
| airfields than they have modern fighter jets.
|
| [1]
| https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/7018...
| sandworm101 wrote:
| The UK and most every other western country. Canada has 500+
| airfields and nowhere near that number of jets. The US has
| over 5000 airfields and, again, nowhere near that number of
| jets.
| globalise83 wrote:
| We have two major air forces (RAF, USAF) operating in the UK
| plus a naval air service and army air corps, so an abundance
| of airfields is unsurprising...
| pfist wrote:
| This is great! Some of the listed Oregon airfields aren't foo far
| from me, so I might have to pay them a visit.
|
| I'm an avid researcher of abandoned locations and their
| histories. There is nothing quite like immersing yourself in the
| past, especially if you can stand in the location for yourself.
| Imagine all the paths that intersected there; the lives that were
| changed. Even the smallest trace you leave behind may be
| rediscovered by someone in the future, and they may wonder what
| your life was like. They may even be connected to you in some
| way. Perhaps this trace is what leads them to discover that
| connection.
| yubiox wrote:
| Very nice site. The northwest Sacramento, CA page has Natomas
| Field where I used to hang out all the time and fly amazing
| planes from. The flying club had a Decathlon for acrobatics, a
| Piper Cub for cruising low and slow, and a Bonanza for taking
| trips, plus many other aircraft. So much fun. It was so sad when
| the houses were built there and they closed the airport around
| 2000.
| tamimio wrote:
| Slightly off-topic: Take a note web developer, you see there is a
| fully functional site with images, links, and everything with no
| or minimum js needed, it looks authentic and fast to browse,
| pretty much 90% of the cases you don't need most of the stuff you
| shove into visitors faces, grapghQL node_modules vite etc.. look
| at this! https://roadmap.sh/frontend
| xwdv wrote:
| Site has been around since 1999. Please be careful to not
| overwhelm the server.
| UberFly wrote:
| So much cool info and photos on that site. I was able to find the
| (abandoned at the time) runway a mile from my house that we used
| to ride bikes on as a kid. I had no idea the infrastructure that
| had been there at one time.
| phkahler wrote:
| There is a huge one missing in northern Michigan. The site is
| used for winter testing by several auto companies. They have a
| website here:
|
| https://www.smithers.com/industries/transportation/automotiv...
|
| It was a large airport with 3 runways in a triangle
| configuration. Last time I was there I thought it was owned by
| Continental.
| wiredfool wrote:
| Interesting -- the one that I know of isn't listed on the Seattle
| Area page.
|
| https://www.openstreetmap.org/query?lat=48.06021&lon=-122.46...
| S201 wrote:
| Cool, I'm in the Seattle area and didn't know of that one
| either. Do you have any background on it? I run a similar
| website to catalog all current airports, but also collect info
| on closed airports for historical purposes. I added a page for
| it here: https://pirep.io/airports/UNM96. If there's any info
| to document on it that would be wonderful.
| cstuder wrote:
| I randomly clicked on `Wyoming` and halfway down the page came
| across a picture of Amelia Earhart. That was a fun surprise.
| julienchastang wrote:
| I grew up near one of these [0]. My friends and I would go to the
| air traffic control hut just to hang out and watch planes. There
| was also a vending machine where we could buy soda (enticing for
| kids in a rural area with not many services). The airstrip had a
| role to play in WWII apparently something that was mentioned when
| developers wanted to build a large condo complex there and local
| opposition mounted to scuttle the project (NIMBY in retrospect).
| I remember an accident when two planes landed too close together
| if memory serves correct and killed one of the pilots. Anyway, I
| loved that little airport checking out the parked Cessna's and
| watching planes land and take off. The landing flight path was
| right above our house. Over the years the trees grew taller and
| we could no longer see the landing strip from our house. The red
| fuel towers were there until recently (long after the airport
| closed, probably had toxic waste that required elaborate
| cleanup), but apparently no longer there[1]. Good times...
|
| [0] http://www.airfields-
| freeman.com/NY/Airfields_NY_SE.htm#maho...
|
| [1] https://goo.gl/maps/99chYDHCWkFmbhku5
| AtlasBarfed wrote:
| Holy crap, there are planes that flew with 50 horsepower engines?
| Were they made of bamboo and canvas?
|
| Apparently the great creeping evil of airports is ... suburban
| housing.
| bombcar wrote:
| There still are! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipistrel_Taurus
| is 55 horse, and I'm sure there are light sport aircraft that
| are even lighter.
| seabass-labrax wrote:
| I believe the lowest power aircraft engine currently in
| production is the Swedish Radne Raket 120 at the
| manufacturer's claimed output of 14 hp. However, Wikipedia
| suggests that the only fixed-wing aircraft using this
| powerplant requires two of of them, therefore adding up to 28
| hp.
| dustincoates wrote:
| Floyd Bennett[0] is a nice abandoned airport to visit. It's a
| friendly bike ride from many parts of Brooklyn and they still
| have many of the original buildings. It's worth the afternoon
| trip.
|
| 0. http://www.airfields-
| freeman.com/NY/Airfields_NY_NY_Brooklyn...
| NelsonMinar wrote:
| Shout out to my local story in Grass Valley, CA:
| http://www.airfields-freeman.com/ca/Airfields_CA_NE.htm#gras...
|
| It has a credible claim to operating since around 1900, which
| makes it very old for a California airport. The owner (Lyman
| Gilmore) has a less-than-credible claim to flying an airplane in
| 1902, a year before the Wright Bros. It's a good story even if
| it's perhaps not true.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyman_Gilmore
|
| The local school built near the old airfield has a windsock as a
| commemoration.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| An aerodrome then.
| Pamar wrote:
| This has been published already another 6 times (at least):
| https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=airfields-freeman.com
| toyg wrote:
| https://xkcd.com/1053/
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| And yet, every time it's reposted, new eyes will see it; this
| is the same problem that e.g. Reddit has, it's full of reposts,
| but there's so many posts that nobody will ever actually go
| down the list and read all previous posts.
|
| Reposts are an issue on low-volume sites, but HN is not a low
| volume site. Reposts are also allowed, since reposts done on
| different times or times of the week can attract a lot more
| comments, as proven by the search link that shows just one of
| the 6 reposts having more than one comment.
| Pamar wrote:
| I posted the list, so people can also see when it was
| commented the most, I am not advocating "do not post
| duplicates", just making an effort to show that this specific
| site/article had been discussed more than once so if you are
| interested maybe you'd like to check the old threads.
|
| (btw, I thought that in the past "duplicates" would be
| converted to automatic +1 to older entries of the same item?
| Has this changed? am I misremembering?)
| Stratoscope wrote:
| > _I thought that in the past "duplicates" would be
| converted to automatic +1 to older entries of the same
| item?_
|
| You are definitely correct about that. Several times
| recently, I have submitted articles and found myself on a
| recent submission of the same article (which presumably got
| a +1 as a result).
|
| Maybe enough time elapsed since the last submission of this
| article that this didn't happen?
|
| In any case, we can all enjoy this cool site that documents
| so much aviation history.
| rob wrote:
| And I've seen it 0 times since joining in 2007.
|
| Happy that it was re-posted today - I spent about 20 minutes on
| it.
| Stratoscope wrote:
| For an aviation history enthusiast like me, a site like this is
| always worth another look.
|
| I live on the San Francisco Peninsula. I'd heard that there had
| been little airports up and down the peninsula, but I didn't
| know much about them. This page brought them to life:
|
| http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_SanFran.htm
|
| I used to live in Los Gatos, and I had no idea there was a
| little airport in the hills just out of town!
|
| http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_SanJose.htm
| fragmede wrote:
| Of course, the local trivia about San Carlos, which is just
| down the street from Redwood city, previously Oracle HQ, Is
| that its IATA code is SQL.
| Stratoscope wrote:
| Making this even more of a fun coincidence, San Carlos
| Airport was SQL long before Oracle was founded!
| eweise wrote:
| I remember the airport down at the marina in San Francisco
| when was a kid. Now its a big grassy field.
| Stratoscope wrote:
| Would that be Crissy Field?
|
| http://www.airfields-
| freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_SanFran.htm...
|
| There was also Montgomery Field / Marina Airfield (now the
| Marina Green), but you would have to be even older than me
| to have seen that one.
|
| http://www.airfields-
| freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_SanFran.htm...
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Some previous discussion a few years ago:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27192626
| dang wrote:
| Thanks! Macroexpanded:
|
| _Abandoned and Little-Known Airfields_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27192626 - May 2021 (38
| comments)
|
| _Abandoned and little known airfields_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16627274 - March 2018 (1
| comment)
| vogt wrote:
| Wow, this is a great blast from the past. I grew up on the road
| where this airport http://www.airfields-
| freeman.com/MA/Airfields_MA_C.htm#norfo... was. You would walk
| right out our front door and the field with runways was right in
| front of you. I vividly remember being about 6-7 years old (so,
| 1993-1994) and seeing a plane crash in the field. Was hoping to
| find mention of it but didn't see any. Either way, total
| nostalgia flood. Simpler times. Thanks OP!
| browningstreet wrote:
| The interface is pretty rough. A publicly shared Airtable or
| Excel spreadsheet would work better.
|
| Tried to find this airfield in Sierraville, CA:
|
| https://www.airnav.com/airport/O79
|
| I may or may not have been able to find the right categorization
| page, from which.. as far as I can tell.. it's absent.
| buildsjets wrote:
| This is a website for abandoned airfields. Your link is to an
| actively used airfield. So, you should bot be surprised that it
| is absent.
| Simon_O_Rourke wrote:
| Add in Boston Logan airport to that list, while it might be more
| widely known it's basically an abandoned zoo once you get in the
| front doors
| dinkblam wrote:
| anyone know a similar resource for europe?
|
| ( i'd love to buy as much asphalt for as little as possible... )
| SkyPuncher wrote:
| It's always fun with this site pops up. I discovered a new tidbit
| about the old Menominee Airport, MI [0]
|
| There's a park along US-2 that I've driven past called "Airport
| Park" [1]. It made little sense to me as there's nothing but
| woods around it and there's a airport in the town. Turns out,
| that park's name is still a holdover from when there was an
| actual airport there.
|
| [0] - http://www.airfields-
| freeman.com/MI/Airfields_MI_N.htm#menom...
|
| [1] -
| https://www.google.com/maps/place/Airport+Park/@45.1627892,-...
| defrost wrote:
| Almost abandoned, now revived but relatively unknown, one of my
| favourites is the Mungalalu Truscott Airbase in northern
| Australia, used during WWII for long range bombing of Japanese
| oil wells and depots in SE Asia.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mungalalu_Truscott_Airbase
|
| Still home to WWII era (well, 1946 to 1951) Grumman G-73 Mallard
| air boats.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_G-73_Mallard
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqMQWO5ffTA
| sumtechguy wrote:
| One guy I worked with started a glider club. Turns out they
| needed a runway. So they made one out of an old farmers field.
| No real runway just an empty field cut low and a small shack at
| the end of the run way to fix things. "I am going to name it an
| international something, not sure what". Few years later I
| asked him if they gave him his international name. They had! So
| this little random field is an 'international' airport.
| seabass-labrax wrote:
| I'm curious; what's the ICAO airport code?
|
| The story reminds me of Llandegley International airport[1],
| except in your colleague's case there actually was somewhere
| to land!
|
| [1]: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-
| advice/wales-a...
| est wrote:
| looks like this gets posted every year
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=airfields-freeman.com
| dang wrote:
| Reposts are ok once a year or so! This is in the FAQ:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html.
| rft wrote:
| 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.
| bombcar wrote:
| 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.
| MrDunham wrote:
| 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-...
| ianburrell wrote:
| 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.
| throwaway798214 wrote:
| 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...
| fineline wrote:
| 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.
| CTDOCodebases wrote:
| Switzerland hides some of their jets in mountains and uses
| the highways as runways.
|
| https://migflug.com/jetflights/hidden-swiss-air-force/
| cf141q5325 wrote:
| 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]
| gangstead wrote:
| I looked up the once-airport near where I grew up:
| http://www.airfields-freeman.com/TX/Airfields_TX_Dallas_E.ht...
|
| My parents worked at the defense contractor company on that site,
| E-Systems, for 30 years. I learned more about what they did there
| from this site today than I ever learned from them!
| vogt wrote:
| Pretty cool. I lived out that way for a bit in the early 2010s
| (Abrams + Munger). I take it you're from Garland originally, or
| did you grow up in the city?
| gangstead wrote:
| I've bounced around the suburbs from there (Richardson,
| Garland, etc)
| jameshart wrote:
| Here's one entry that should fascinate young hackers, who think
| tech company extravagance was a invented by Google in the dotcom
| era, and exclusive to Silicon Valley:
|
| http://www.airfields-freeman.com/MA/Airfields_MA_NE.htm#dec
|
| > As the 1960s progressed, Digital's success found it expanding
| rapidly, but unable to find office space near its Maynard
| headquarters. They began purchasing additional campuses all
| around Boston & initiated their own dedicated helicopter service
| to ferry people between locations.
|
| > ...
|
| > Jack Falvey reported, "The helicopters were not executive perks
| at DEC; they were used by any & all employees who wanted to avoid
| traffic in going from place to place.
|
| > This egalitarian policy further emphasized just how different
| DEC was & how indifferent they appeared to be to the cost of
| anything.
|
| > In doing [my] case study, we were told that DEC had state-of-
| the-art video-conferencing facilities that no one used because it
| was sexier to take the helicopters."
| MichaelZuo wrote:
| Helicopter flight costs per passenger were much cheaper back
| then due to low oil prices, less stringent safety standards,
| and close to zero regulations regarding noise around helipads.
|
| Maybe as little as a fifth of the cost, inflation adjusted, a
| similar heli service in 2023 would be.
|
| So not as extravagant as it sounds in the modern context.
| jameshart wrote:
| True. The 1960s 'Massachusetts Helicopter Airlines' flier
| included on that page indicates that a scheduled half hourly
| commercial helicopter service from Logan to 128 was charging
| $10 a ticket - that's about $70 in today's money, which,
| coincidentally, is _about what an Uber from Logan to 128 will
| cost you_.
|
| So in terms of extravagance I guess running your own inter-
| office helicopter service in the 1960s amounts to something
| similar to running an on demand ride service today. Not
| ridiculous for a multi campus company to consider doing such
| a thing.
|
| That said, DEC apparently kept this helicopter thing running
| right up to the 1990s, through a couple of oil shocks and the
| invention of the EPA, so... not sure it remained that cheap
| to run.
| pengaru wrote:
| > That said, DEC apparently kept this helicopter thing
| running right up to the 1990s, through a couple of oil
| shocks and the invention of the EPA, so... not sure it
| remained that cheap to run.
|
| "First hit's free!" was clearly the oil industry's
| strategy. Everyone became addicted to the mobility enabled
| by combustion engines. It's an addiction we're still
| struggling with to this day, despite the costs.
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