"Rob Perkins" wrote in message
...
"Peter Duniho" wrote:

"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.

Hmm. I'd never have supposed it, riding on those roads. Unless you're
talking about the Schweizerautobahn it doesn't seem to me that any of
the Swiss federal or cantonal roads are wide enough for more than a GA
aircraft. Is the article online someplace?

FWIW, I've heard similar things about a stretch of highway outside of
Frankfurt.
An hour and a half west of Frankfurt there is a long, straight road near
Ramstein AB. A retired USAF pilot told me that Hitler used this for an
emergency landing strip.