Tuesday, April 25, 2023

The Military Base Where You Drive Over the Runway



Switzerland is a small country draped over some tall mountains, yet it has developed ways to pack all kinds of modern infrastructure in with Swiss engineering and multiple uses of the land. Now, airports and military air bases need quite a bit of room and flat ground for runways, which is at a premium in Switzerland. So they built Meiringen Air Base in an Alpine valley that already had important public roads running through it. The highways run right across the runways! Yeah, there's a system in place to keep everyone safe. Most air bases are closed to the general public, but it can't be done here, so people come from all over the world to watch the military aircraft take off and land at Meiringen. Tom Scott added some more information at the YouTube page, explaining that the planes aren't stored in hangars here. They are stored in caverns in the hillsides! The Swiss know a thing or two about saving space.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's just say it's good the Swiss stay neutral.

Anonymous said...

Because their army knives are terrifying.

Bicycle Bill said...

There's a airfield in New Zealand — Gisborne Airport, about 450 km (280 miles) southeast of Auckland on New Zealand's North Island – that has an active rail line crossing its paved runway.

https://lh5.ggpht.com/-KvPNoNnW-Zk/Uge0hI4lrSI/AAAAAAAArL0/jy1hOPnKXas/gisborne-airport-1%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800

The aircraft pictured isn't playing "chicken" with the train; it's holding in position on the runway for the train to clear before beginning its takeoff roll.

-"BB"-