Evening star., 1943-03-01

The MASSIVE AIR FORCES now determining so
largely the course of the war are weaving the
fabric OF the future peace. Aviation is recastng
our maps, rewriting our biographies, and up
setting our sense of direction.
East is no longer East, or West something off
to the left as one faces the North Pole Distance
to faraway points is no longer miles but some
thing reckoned in hours and minutes
The Arctic regions already have ceased to be
only icy desolation; they are the crossroads of
commerce for next year and the year after, with
surfaces and climate rather we'll suited to their
new role.
The United States is no longer country sepa-
rated by broad oceans from Europe and Asia
We are country living next door to the world
Our former vacuum of insulating space has been
filled, literally, by air and airplanes
We are producing today, in quantity stand
ard transport planes that can carry 6-ton car
goes at about 200 miles an hour 1t is not fantas-
tic to foresee planes that will carry 100 tons at
speed of 400 miles an hour; such are on the
way. 1t is possible that postwar commercial
Craft will be able to maintain express schedules
OF 800 miles an hour on long runs.
Most of those long runs will be in the north
ern half of the globe, for this is where 90 per
cent of the worlds population is found and
which, therefore, provides most of the traffic in
passengers, mail, express and light freight How
ever, because of their rich resources, South
America, Southern Africa, Australia, New Zea-
land, and the East Indies also will provide an
immense growth in air traffic.
Forgetting mileage-for stating global dis
tance in miles in relation to fight is like giving
highway distances in feet-what does 3OO-mile
speed mean in intercontinental traffic?
1t means that by the most direct routes, with
allowance for take-offs and refueling stops,
Chicago and Detroit are only 80 hours from
Bombay and Calcutta, Fl hours from Ankara,
and 19 hours from Moscow; and that Tokyo
and Shanghai are only % and II hours respec-
lively from Minneapolis.
In world which was land d-and-water bound,
the distortions of the Mercator projection were
relatively unimportant. In that world with our
principal ports of foreign commerce on the
seaboard, it natural for that vast section of
the nation between the Alleghenies and the
Rockies to feel remote from Europe and Asia
and Africa, and often less sensitive than the
coastal states to what was happening on the
oceans and beyond them. But what of a world
in which bombers based on North Cape, Nor
way, or Murmansk are as close to Seattle and
Chicago to Washington?. :. in which Denver
and Butte lie on the main airway from the
Panama Canal to Shanghai. i. in which Mime
apolis, Detroit. and Chicago become logical
points of embarkation for the land mass of
Eurasia9
Norfhward Ho: These new Arctic routes
are physically feasible. Their development al
ready has gone farther than the public for mil
itary reasons, has been allowed to know. De-
icing and other problems incident to the win
terizng" of planes for operation in subfreezing
and subzero weather are solved or are we'll on
their way to solution Airhelds have been built,
and more can be, near the summer limits of
navigation where they can be supplied
eheaply by boat.
There are, however, other reasons why the
shortest Great Circle routes through the Arctic
may not experience the most rapid develop
ment in the years Immediately following the
These are economic, legal, and political.
The economics of air transport has been reduced
to elaborate equations. Skipping these equa-
tions two common-sense observations may be
made. First, there is profit in empty seats.
Second, there is no profit in hauling gasoline.
The first means that air transport normally
will follow the routes which traffic Justlhes, al
though patiently improbable routes may be un-
dertaken for political reasons or with view
to longer-range economic development. The
shortest route from Chicago to Calcutta goes
across Bafln Island, Eastern Siberia Sinkiang
Province in Western China, and Tibet This is
relatively sterile territory 1t is doubtful that it
would provide the traffic to justify frequent, or
even regular service.
On the other hand, the route from Chicago
TO Calcutta by way of New York, the Azores,
Casablanca, Cairo, Basra, and karachi, would
tap rich territory. 1t would be fed by lines run
ming down from Spain, France, Italy, the Bal
kans, and Asia Minor, and running up the
length of Africa, as we'll as from South Amer
ica. 1t would be trunk line. Direct, the route
would take 40 hours as against 80 for the other.
but there would be little point in a nonstop
flight. With stops, the run to Calcutta might
take four to six days, but in the absence of an
immense demand for direct route via Sin.