Flying the Atlantic : 411 



channels of communication which would form on the earth, or on 

 a map representing the earth, a pattern of commerce radically dif- 

 ferent from that of the conventional methods of land travel and con- 

 ventional lanes of steamer travel on the ocean. This was a reasonable 

 expectation and in the future aircraft may well open up transpolar 

 routes between North America and Europe and North America and 

 Asia. Under present political conditions such routes have not devel- 

 oped to any significant degree, although Scandinavian Airlines now 

 flies from Los Angeles to Europe via the polar routes, and similar 

 flights to Asia seem imminent. 



On the contrary, it is interesting to notice that for the most part 

 the lines of air travel both over sea and over land tend to follow the 

 pattern and precedents of the carriers that operate on the earth's sur- 

 face both in direction of route and in relative volume of services of- 

 fered. The reasons for this are perfectly simple. Like other forms of 

 communication, the air lines depend for their economic existence on 

 providing connections between the major centers of population. Most 

 of the major centers of population have been established for some 

 time and the routes between them carefully worked out by land serv- 

 ices such as railways, highways, truck routes, rivers, channels, etc. 

 Along these lines of travel important secondary and even primary 

 centers of population have appeared. 



Consequently, even though the air lines might theoretically and 

 even technically follow different lines of travel their natural desire 

 for a large volume of traffic constrains them to operate between the 

 major centers of population. Safety of operation also constrains them 

 to follow prescribed routes. 



In the case of transatlantic travel it appeared for a time as though 

 the passage from Europe to America might be made from Spain or 

 Lisbon to the Azores, to Bermuda and then to some American port 

 such as Norfolk or Baltimore. During a developmental stage such 

 routes were, in fact, pursued by airplanes and they thus revived an 

 early route of the sailing ships. The reasons why the planes followed 

 this route were exacdy the same reasons that appealed to the cap- 

 tains of the old sailing vessels, namely, that on this route there were 

 convenient island stops for the replenishment of supplies and for the 

 comfort of passengers. Also, this route, in a measure, avoided the pre- 

 vailing westerlies of the northern latitudes which were such a handi- 

 cap both to ships on the sea and ships in the air making the passage 

 from Europe to America. 



Since that time the fuel capacity and the range of aircraft has 



