The Wanganui Chronicle WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1943 AIR TRAMSPORT OF THE FUTURE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 272, 17 November 1943, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1943 AIR TRAMSPORT OF THE FUTURE

yin-: speed and the range of the aeroplane have so reduced the size of the world that to-day all nations are either “friendly neighbours or close enemies.” This pithy summing up of tee situation regarding air transport is typically American; it comes from Mr. Welch Pogue, chairman of the United States Civil Aeronautics Board, with whom the majority of students of this .important problem of the post-war world will agree.

The aeroplane has no need to follow the roundabout routes forced on ships, trains and road transport by such natural obstacles as laud, sea and mountains, so that it is free to follow what is mapped out as the shortest practicable route between base and destination. Air transport will in future create new world routes, which will follow the Great Circle routes—the shortest distance between any two places on the face of the globe. A conception of the global geography of the future cannot be gained by studying a map of the world on Mercator’s projection. New types of aitmaps do not bother to subdivide the globe’s surface into sea and land: they indicate only the names of the important air centres which lie on the Great .Circle routes, ignoring all else as irrelevant. Sometimes the globe is shown as a small circle inside a much bigger one, the latter representing the atmospheric space in which it is possible for long range aircraft to fly great distances at high altitudes. American writers on aeronautics arc already referring to the “air world’’ and the “ocean of the air,” and the development of aviation to this stage is treated as a natural evolution in the age-old quest for “the longer hour and the shorter mile.” Charts of the world now show air routes extending from one hemisphere to the other as casually as an ordnance map deals with, a railway journey between London and the West of England or Scotland. An interesting point is the importance which London and Moscow play as air trasport centres on these Great Circle routes. London, being situated in a direct line between a point i’t Alaska and South Africa and New Zealand, links naturally with Athens, Cairo and Aden in one direction, and Greenland and Vancouver in the other: it lies on the air path to Tokio in the east (via Norway and Siberia) and to Dakar or Bathurst in Wess Africa, thenr-e to Rio de Janeiro. Moscow is an equally good centre for some of these routes.

Weather may prove a big obstacle in the use of some places for all-the-year-round air traffic, but much new experience of bad weather flying has been gained during the war. Particularly so is this the case with regard to the passage across the Atlantic, the return ferry service run by British Overseas Airways both ways over the Atlantic having shown that even intense cold, and hig'h winds do not present insuperable obstacles to winter air services. Many technical improvements in regard to flying in the dark and in bad weather will be possible when the cessation of hostilities again allows a world-wide exchange of meteorological information. In the present state of aeronautical development there are limits to the range and speed which commercial considerations dictate. But it seems almost certain that in the immediate postwar years the big airliners on the world’s “trunk” routes will make non-stop hops of at least 2000 miles at speeds in excess of 200 miles an hour, thus being able to ignore natural surface barriers. landing at bases established at convenient intervals along the Great Circle routes.

A strong appeal has been made to the American people to realise the vast potentialities of air transport. One writer uttered a warning which may well be taken to heart in other countries when he said that “the major victor in the peace will be he who goes into those conferences with the strongest position in air transportation.” Another American writer stresses the part which longrange aviation can play in enforcing peace, saying that since the air is everywhere it is not possible for “any person, clique, or nation to hide anywhere upon the earth from air surveillance,” so that “if we have mastery of the air we can reach the spawning grounds of the war plotters and prevent their preparations for war. ’ ’

The nations of the world must decide to what extent artificial barriers can and should be removed from the path of aviation. This is perceived as an issue of first importance, for it would determine the extent to which nations would have the right to engage in air commerce over the shortest routes and in the most economical way. Because the new “global geography” will be an important factor in determining economic and commercial interests in the air era, it is eminently desirable that the establishment of the right of commercial air transit be made on a world-wide basis. The problem requires to be tackled with the courage and the vision necessary to give the aeroplane a charter equal to its need. The United Nations have already taken a step in the right direction, but unless all nations agree to do away with the outworn theory of the “closed sky,” by which each nation claimed sole possession of the air space over its territory, aviation cannot adequately spread its wings. The sky must be free for all aircraft engaged on legitimate, business.