The Geography of World Air Transport. By J. Parker Van
Zandt.
(The Brockings Institution, Washington). (Faber and Faber. 5s.) HEMISPHERES, says Dr. Van Zandt, are what you make them, and there is nothing sacred about the division of our globe into its eastern and western halves. We shall have to think of two different hemispheres in the coming air age. They will be northern and southern hemispheres, but not those divided by the equator. The northern one will have its " pole " somewhere over western France, and will embrace all North America, more than half of South America, all Europe, all Asia except a negligible corner, and all Africa. The other hemisphere will include Australia and the southern part of South America ; it will be mainly water. The northern hemisphere will include 94 per cent, of the world's popula- tion and 98 per cent, of its industry. Greater Europe (defined as including the North African coast), North America, the Soviet Union, and Asia are the "big four" regions, and it is the air traffic in and between them that will matter. The routes by which this traffic will probably be carried are discussed by Dr. Van Zandt in this interesting little book, which contains a number of useful charts and diagrams. "Contrary to the prevailing belief," he says, "air routes of the future are not likely to be laid out across the north polar regions." Most of the major routes, however, will probably go north about, simply because that is the shortest way. To get to Shanghai from San Francisco the air-liners will fly north to Alaska and then south through eastern Siberia, not westward Oa Hawaii.
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