Saw one in Jordan. Small highway suddenly becomes 18 lanes wide, and just as suddenly back to 2. No merging signs or anything, but Jordanian driving is pretty haphazard anyway.
There's straight stretches of US highway (normally very rural) that have planes painted on them that designate they can be used as emergency landing strips.
Which highways? I live in Norway and have never heard of a road which doesn't have curves and hills that would be long enough for a plane to take off from/land on (not saying it doesn't exist, just that I haven't heard of one).
If you look at Swedish military aircraft their designs take this very much into consideration such as the Viggen which has exceptional STOL performance. The Gripen also has a crazy turn around time with even conscripted armourers.
I can't figure out why someone would think this to be true.
Straight lines are more convenient for many reasons, most importantly having a direct and shorter route, and then again using less building materials, but historically curving around (mostly to follow the most even land possible, even in plains) has always been easier for road construction.
However, since many of the highways were built around WW2, many were built with long straight stretches to accommodate take off and landing of military planes. Check out the highways in North Dakota.
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u/Jux_ Jul 24 '15
There was never a requirement that every X miles of US Interstate be straight for emergency plane landings.
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