He used a landing strip of cardboard boxes, known as a box rig, covering about 350ft (100m) by 45ft (15m).

BBC: Gary Connery in world's first skydive without parachute

No big resorts befoul the coastline, and the only airport is a landing strip, accepting nothing much larger than a 16-seater plane.

BBC: The kingdom of the crystal skull

Coeur managers cut road exposure down to a 10-mile stretch by flying into and out of a desolate gravel landing strip, which they extended 700 feet and will soon pave.

FORBES: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

At a - as yet unspecified - later stage in the fantasy, a small plane shudders to a halt on the dusty landing strip.

BBC: Magazine

But just why ancient people created the Nazca Lines has been an enduring mystery: Some archaeologists have suggested it was an alien landing strip, a primitive sun calendar, or an irrigation system.

MSN: Peru's mysterious Nazca Lines form a labyrinth, says study

The landing strip is just a tiny break in the rain forest's canopy.

BBC: Transcript: Cocaine: Alex James in Colombia

Its isolated branch on a Lake Victoria island receives money from the sky: with no landing strip, planes drop bags of cash to be collected by staff and security guards.

ECONOMIST: Business in Africa