Posted on 08/05/2021 8:33:39 PM PDT by blueplum
The planes landed on a four-lane stretch of Michigan State Highway M-32
The Michigan Air National Guard took off and landed multiple planes on a four-lane stretch of State Highway M-32 Thursday, which is the first time that modern combat aircraft have intentionally landed on a U.S. civilian road, the Selfridge base said.
Part of M-32 near Alpena in the northwestern part of the state was closed down for the training exercise, which was dubbed "Thunder Landing Zone (LZ)."
"Thunder LZ gave the pilots the opportunity to land in an austere environment that they’re not used to," U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Brian Wyrzykowski, the mission commander, said after...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Fun, probably. But legal?
Watch out for traffic, overpasses, overhead signs and the median!
What plane is small enough to land on a highway?
The Interstate Highway system was originally built to facilitate movement of defense materiel. I imagine that the designers contemplated aircraft landing on them.
Hmm. A-10s practicing use of improvised runways in CONUS. That’s new.
A bit of history: The interstate highway system was designed in many areas to serve as emergency airstrips in case of what looked at the time of nuclear attack from the Soviets.
IIRC, distance between over passes and such was regulated to produce useable runways.
Defund the Air Force? Make land on the highways?
Thank God for Eisenhower.
The speed limit is 55 mph.
Who gets the ticket for going 200 mph over?
For some reason, Mil training on how to land on US civilian highways is a priority now. 🤔
Thanks for the additional insight. I kind of recollect that, but forgot those details.
Y’all should have seen the havoc created when some Marine Harriers landed next to interstate 5 on a base road through Camp Pendleton.
Base road parallel to the freeway only maybe 20-30 yards separation.
That was one of the reasons for building the interstate highway system.
It is why there are straight sections scattered throughout.
When I was in disaster preparedness in the USAF, in NH, in the event of a nuclear war, the plan was to launch our F111s to bomb missile silos in the Soviet Union.
Meanwhile we were to move everything up to a random straight section of I-95 in Maine.
Surviving air crews were to fly down the highway until they saw us and land.
The planes were to be refueled, repaired, and more bombs loaded.
Repeat until we ran out of planes or the war ended.
“A-10s practicing use of improvised runways in CONUS. That’s new.”
There’s no good reason for it.
“The Interstate Highway system was originally built to facilitate movement of defense materiel. I imagine that the designers contemplated aircraft landing on them.”
In every area where the terrain allows it, one mile of every five on interstate highways is completely straight for that very reason.
One mile was plenty for while. Of course it still works for many, if needed.
Just in case Joe Xiden wants some A-10’s to handle some conservatives refusing to be vaccinated.
Yeah, that was the rationale Ike gave to get the funding. It may be half true.
That and the rings around big cities were meant to be firebreaks, no?
The Germans used the Autobahns as airstrips and parked their planes and jets under overpasses in the later stages of WW II.If you can’t control the skies over your domestic military bases, you are likely losing and will lose a war.
@mspnorthernmi
No speeding citations were issued during the exercise.
twitter videos:
https://twitter.com/mspnorthernmi/status/1423272981783003137
I liked the comment ‘not a single pothole!’
Note to self
Move away from freeway
This took place about 5 miles from where I live. It was actually a very simple operation. The road (M-32) was closed off for a little over a mile and any cross roads were also closed. A set of high voltage lines crossing the road were dropped on one end and pulled back across the road to make restoration of electric service simple. The aircraft had only about a 4 mile hop from their take off point at the ANG Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center. The planes made one approach and set down on the highway. They then made a U turn and taxied back to the departure end of the highway. Pre-flight checks were done and the planes took off to return to the CRTC. After all air operations were completed, electric power was quickly restored, ground support equipment was loaded onto trucks, road barriers removed, and everything was back to normal. They even had a crew to police the grounds to clean up the trash the reporters and VIPs left. Simple operation.
It was good PR and great entertainment for the locals, but if you had seen air ops in the Sandbox like I had, it was no big deal.
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