"Rob Perkins" wrote in message
...
I dunno about that. There isn't a straight stretch of road or highway
in all the mountainous areas of Switzerland, it seems to me. And I've
been on 'em, on those Postal Bus routes. It'd be a mighty short-field
technique taking off from one of those roads!

Dan is exactly correct. Air & Space Magazine ran a feature about it a few
years ago. The highways used for runways are straight enough, and they have
a removable divider between the lane directions so that the aircraft have
use of the full width of the pavement.

Perhaps they do use short-field techniques, but they do have air bases in
mountain-sides and they do use the highway for the runway.

Pete