Is one mile out of every five on Interstate highways straight for emergency airplane landing strips?
Absolutely not! According to Richard F. Weingroff, who works in the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Infrastructure, says “No law, regulation, policy, or sliver of red tape requires that one out of five miles of the Interstate Highway System must be straight.” He says that it’s a complete hoax and urban legend that the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System requires that one mile in every five must be straight to be usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies. Besides, there are more overpasses and interchanges than there are miles in the system so even if there were straight miles, planes attempting to land would quickly encounter a overpass on their runway. For more information, visit Mr. Weingroff’s article about the legend and my Interstate Highways article.
