Rosice highway strip

49°11'23"N 016°25'14"E

Runway: 05/23 - 700x15meters/0000feet - asphalt

Rosice 'highway strip' never was an airfield. It is listed here, because photos exist of a Czechoslovak L-39 (specifically prototype 0034) landing there. The 'how and why' can be read below.


L-39 prototype 0034 on finals to the temporary airstrip on 1 September 1979

On the occasion of the 1973 International Engineering Fair in Brno, a prototype of the Aero L-39 (then still without its nickname Albatross) landed on the motorway from Brno to Rosice. Aero had been wanting to display the aircraft that would replace the succesful L-29 Dolphin at the fair, but moving it from the manufacturers airfield through town would have required expensive works. There were in essence two options.
The first was to pull the complete prototype through the streets of Brno, requring the removal of lots of street furniture, traffic signs and trees. The alternative was to disassemble the freshly painted aircraft and move it in crates. Of course that would partially damage its new paint finish, which is not desirable at a fair.
Therefore a third option was conceived: Flying the aircraft to the other side of town, land on the highway and then taxi back to the fair. With the L-39 having been designed not to rely on advanced airfield infrastructure, this was considered to be the best option. The whole operation was then put in the hands of a small team led by Aero test pilot Jurajem Šoucem, who was to fly the aircraft to the exhibition.

On 1 September 1973 a small convoy (a firetruck, a crane, a fuel truck and several smaller cars) set up on the shoulder of the highway. Around half past 1 in the afternoon they began blocking a 700 meter section of the 15 meter wide highway. Right on time, the group was ready, and the small silhouette of an L-39 appeared over the trees. Coming in at 165 kilometers an hour (just over 100kts) the L-39 landed on the narrow strip. The landing formed only one half of the journey though. After landing, it was towed over the highway (about 10 kilometers) to the Brno Exhibition Center.
In doing so the L-39 had also demonstrated it was able to operate from small and austere strips with little or no preparation. The whole event was covered by an article in Czechoslovak magazine 'Letectví+kosmonautika' (Aviation+Aerospace), republished in 2009 by Magazín Letište (in Czech).


L-39 prototype 0034 on the temporary airstrip on 1 September 1979


The L-39 behind a tow truck on the D-1 highway


Rosice highway strip in 2009