Orleans High School - Sword Yearbook (Orleans, VT)

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The airplane has also changed the maps. The old maps are now useless and misleading for the Air Age. There is a map which shows airline routes that can easily be measured. This is called an Azimuthal Equidistant projection. In simple language, that merely means a map which is centered on a definite spot on the globe, and on which the distance to any other point can be measured. On this map, the straight line connecting the center of the map with any other point is called a great circle route,” which is the shortest distance between two points. The most common form of this map, upon which this war’s strategy is based, is the polar map, which is centered on the North Pole. As you know, the world land areas are not distributed equally. Most of the earth’s land masses lie north of the equator. So a polar map enables us to see with some accuracy three-fourths of the earth’s land area, on which ninety per cent of the earth’s people live. Millions of dollars have been spent to develop these northern routes, and the Arctic routes are being flown every day. A good example of the uses of these routes is the trip of the late Wendall Willkie. He returned home from China by way of Nome, Alaska and Edmonton, Alberta. A plane going to Tokyo from Chicago would fly directly over Alaska. A plane leav- ing New York for Chungking, China would fly directly over the North Pole. The routes followed by planes will not always be the shortest ones. A plane flying a considerable distance must land at cities which will provide passengers and freight in order to help pay the expenses of the line. As you know, long non-stop flights require much fuel, thus increasing the expenses. On the other hand, the airplane flying over the shortest routes will help to settle the un- developed areas over which it flies. The architect will have a new job in the coming Air-Age world. Cities will undergo changes. Public buildings, homes and factories will be constructed so that the roofs may be used as landing space for airplanes. Bigger and better airports will also be designed. The new global peace plane, which experts are now planning may possi- bly be developed from the present B-29’s. Probably the most inter- esting plan is that of building floating airfields, called seadromes which will be placed at intervals of about nine hundred miles along a trans-oceanic route. They will stand seventy feet above the water and will extend one hundred sixty feet below the surface. Such seadromes would make for greater safety. There will be hotels on the floats so that passengers may wait over till the next plane. These are just a few of the plans which will be developed by the architect. As you know, when anything new is developed, many problems arise which must be taken into consideration. So it is with the Air- Age progress. Issues of international law, individual rights, and sovereignty of peoples confront us. The varying degrees of freedom of the air offered by each nation create further complications. Nev- PAGE THIRTY-ONE

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crowded along the sea coasts, leaving the interiors of the countries undeveloped. The vast resources of the continental interiors of Africa, South America and Asia remain to be developed by air transportation. Many seaports will diminish in importance as air- planes replace ships. Towns at the junctions of air routes will boom. Already new air centers are emerging, such as Wichita, Edmonton, Minneapolis, Fairbanks. From earliest times down to the present, physical boundaries or barriers have separated people. As civilization has progressed, these barriers have caused such difference in people that they result- ed in regionalism and nationalism. There are now such extreme variations in languages that it is impossible for us to talk in other tongues without difficulty. No longer will we have to witness sep- arations of people, for universality has come with the airplane. Th is world we live in today has been developed by surface transportation and communication. Seventy-five per cent of the people in the world live in cities served by sea commerce such as New York, London, Bombay, and San Francisco. These famous ports and centers are beginning to lose their traditional importance for people are now beginning to realize the importance of decentraliza- tion. Decentralization is said to be a necessity in the Air Age. It is required by military security that we have no highly centered industry, and population must be spread out so that we can defend ourselves. Another fact to remember is the airplane’s ability to travel at high speed. Yesterday ships sailed thirty miles an hour. Our relationships with other peoples were based on days. Today air- planes fly at 250 miles per hour. Our relationships with other peo- ples are based on hours. There is no spot on the globe that is more than sixty hours’ flying time from your local airport. They tell us that the vacationist with little money and not many days to spare may visit far-off places like the battlefields of the present war, or the glaciers of Alaska, or tropical islands. Places as far away as China and Japan may be visited in a two weeks’ vacation. To show how the transportation routes are shortened by the airplane, here are a few statistics: the sea route from Seattle to Calcutta is 12,000 miles; the air distance is only 7,225 miles; from San Francisco to Liverpool, it is 8,000 miles by ship, 5,200 miles by air. A cargo plane can make twenty-five trips while a freighter is making one. This proves that the world is shrinking because of the plane. Speed can be sold, just like a commodity. A letter may be of more value when sent by air rather than rail; a business man can be helped by speed of the airplane. Speed is also of great value when it gives us something which we would not otherwise have. For example, fresh-picked vegetables and tree-ripened fruit may reach us by air transportation. PAGE THIRTY

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ertheless each of these issues must be faced and analyzed, and de- cisions must be made. The most important problem is, Who owns the air?” We are all familiar with the words freedom of the seas.” The War of 1812 and the war against the Barbary pirates were fought for this reason. In peacetime, a ship of any nationality may pass through any body of water. But the air ocean is not free as we know the free seas. As a rule, ownership extends from the surface to the center of the earth and to the sky above. Wendell Willkie was the first person to fly around the world and return home from China by way of Alaska. His trip covered 31,000 miles. He stopped at Cairo, Egypt, Baghdad in Iraq, Tehran in Iran, Kuibyshev, Russia, Moscow and Chungking, China. In order to take this trip, our State Department had to get free- dom of the air from every country over which Mr. Willkie flew. This problem, Who owns the air,” must be solved soon. Of what im- portance would the great circle route be if a plane had to abandon this route to circle around some unaccommodating territory? In November, 1944, a world conference was held in Chicago to discuss air transportation problems. Australian and New Zealand delegates proposed international ownership of the air services of the world routes. But the proposal was disapproved by the Brazilian delegate who offered an amendment stressing that ownership of air- craft must be national instead of international. Aloph Berle, Jr., of the United States, Assistant Secretary of State and chairman of the conference approved of the amendment saying, The life of the world is built up by national effort. International co-operation is not built by international domination.” It appears that the entire air conference is now looking forward to a consultative form of world air control authority. It would be wise as well as interesting to follow the World Air Conferences in the daily paper. In order that adults and youth may direct Air-Age progress intelligently, they require in addition to technical education, an understanding of the importance of the airplane to mankind. New books on airplanes, maps, and globes are being published for the high school boy and girl. Some schools have already started courses in the study of the Air Age.” The need for Air-Age education is urgent. It is essential that we educate the high school boy and girl to be air-minded. As we, the graduating class of 1945, leave home and school, we leave with you, our parents, teachers, and friends, our thanks for past encouragement and assistance, and a plea which we know you will fulfill: help us to mold this Air-Age world into a world of peace and friendship so that future generations may live in a world of safety. Phyllis Decker, ’45, Valedictorian. PAGE THIRTY-TWO