Circular Runway

Cub Driver wrote:


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!

You didn't look closely enough! The Swiss autobahns were buitl as
runways. They even had (probably still have) pop-up barriers so the
automobile traffic won't get tangled with the jet interceptors.

(Actually, it was on a Swiss bus, coming down from Arolla in 1974,
that I saw the hangar doors. Don't recall where the runway was in that
case, since I wasn't on the autobahn.)

Can't find Arolla on my map. Which Canton is it in? I found Airola, in
Ticino, and Arosa, in Graubuenden, two cantons which in spite of my 16
months there, I never managed to visit. I spent most of my time in
Basel.

In any case, I don't doubt it's possible, just that it'd be really
difficult on any road the Swiss build except the Autobahn. And even
then, they'd have to be great pilots in any case to operate in those
mountains...

Rob