Didja see this?

When President Eisenhower was building the interstate system, he envisioned a landing strip about every 50 miles because he expected everyone would own a small plane. The plan was a family could land and rest while flying IFR..... that is following the roads while on a trip to visit grandma.....
 
Zeldman said:
When President Eisenhower was building the interstate system, he envisioned a landing strip about every 50 miles because he expected everyone would own a small plane. The plan was a family could land and rest while flying IFR..... that is following the roads while on a trip to visit grandma.....
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http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/airstrip.asp
Belief in this crazy idea should fail anyone's logic test.
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http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/00mayjun/onemileinfive.cfm
But I do know the following statement is false: The Eisenhower Interstate Highway System requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
False though it is, this "fact" has become a fixture of Internet Web sites with names such as "You Probably Didn't Know That ..." and "Weird Fact Heaven."
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Zeldman said:
When President Eisenhower was building the interstate system, he envisioned a landing strip about every 50 miles because he expected everyone would own a small plane. The plan was a family could land and rest while flying IFR..... that is following the roads while on a trip to visit grandma.....
Click to expand...

False. Urban legend.
 
Zeldman said:
When President Eisenhower was building the interstate system, he envisioned a landing strip about every 50 miles because he expected everyone would own a small plane. The plan was a family could land and rest while flying IFR..... that is following the roads while on a trip to visit grandma.....
Click to expand...

What Eisenhower Invisioned was military application, aircraft could use them and the overpasses large enough to accommodate a tank on a truck, etc. Smart thinking. Borrowed in large part from the autobahn which really impressed him.
 
Reading comprehension a problem here?

I never said the highway itself was to be used as a runway. I did not say anything about the "1 in 5 being straight" thing. I never said anything about any of this being a requirement.

The president was a strong GA president and wanted to see a runway (again for the reading challenged) every 50 miles close to the interstate system to be used as a public runway.

Hitler built the autobahn system in Germany with the idea of it being used as a runway as needed. Maybe you are confused as to which country I am talking about.

Envision - To have a mental picture of (something to be) Syn. See "think". Example: President Obama envisions himself as a great president.

Congress briefly considered the possibility of including funding for emergency landing strips in the Federal Highway-Aid Act (the law that authorized designation of a "National System of Interstate Highways"). At no point was the idea kited of using highways or other roads to land planes on; the proposed landing strips would have been built alongside major highways, with the highways serving to handle ground transportation access to and from these strips. The proposal was quickly dropped, and no more was ever heard of it. (A few countries use their roads as military air strips, however.)
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So, it is neither false or an urban legend. However thinking that the interstate system was was specifically built for military landing strips would be false.
 
Zeldman said:
So, it is neither false or an urban legend.
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So you say, but where's the proof? Maybe someone misunderstood your statement for another commonly-repeated legend that's false, but I've seen no more proof that yours is any more correct than that one.

I'd think that if your suggestion were true, then at least a few of the dozens of sites debunking the "1-in-5" thing would mention it ("however, there *was* this other idea...")...

Fun fact: Eisenhower also wanted to build olympic-sized swimming pools every 100 miles along the Interstates, so kids could get out of the car and swim every couple of hours or so.
 
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