Back Notlandeplatz auf Straße German Ŝosea aerodromo Esperanto باند فرود جادهای Persian Lentokoneiden varalaskupaikka Finnish Piste d'atterrissage sur autoroute French Autópálya-szükségrepülőtér Hungarian Pista d'atterraggio stradale Italian 代替滑走路 Japanese Snelweg-noodvliegveld Dutch Vägbas NB
A road runway or road base or highway airstrip (US), is a section of an automotive public road, highway, motorway, or similar, that is specially built (or adapted) to act as a runway for (primarily) military aircraft, and to serve as an emergency or auxiliary military airbase. These road runways allow military aircraft to continue operating even if the runway at their respective airbases (some of the most high-priority targets in any war) are degraded, damaged, or destroyed.
The first road runways were constructed towards the end of World War II in Nazi Germany, where the well-developed Reichsautobahn system allowed their military aircraft to use their motorways. During the Cold War, road runways were systematically built on both sides of the Iron Curtain, in many cases in response to the Six Day War and Operation Focus in 1967, where the Israeli Air Force in a surprise air strike disabled many of their opponents' air bases in just a few hours.[1][2] Countries which have built road runways include both West and East Germany, Singapore, North Korea, Taiwan, Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria, Switzerland (military significance),[3] Poland, India, Pakistan, and Czechoslovakia.
- ^ "1967 Middle East War". News.BBC.co.uk. BBC News. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:2was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Uno Zero Zero – Ein Jahrhundert Schweizer Luftwaffe (in German). Aeropublications, Swiss Air Force. 2013. p. 324. ISBN 978-3-9524239-0-5. Archived from the original on 15 August 2016.
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