This 1938 route map from Imperial Airways includes a cartography lesson: It flattens the globe using a projection inspired by the 16th-century mapmaker Martin Waldseemüller.
Vintage Maps Rekindle the Romance of Early Air Travel
Before pat downs and checked baggage fees, commercial flight carried an air of mystery and adventure.
In the early days of the 20th century, an exciting new mode of travel became possible. Anyone with enough money could take to the skies on a commercial flight. Trips that would take weeks by sea could be made in days by plane. A Londoner could hop over to Paris for the weekend.
As commercial flying grew, maps became a vital advertising tool, tantalizing the public with exotic destinations newly within reach.
Now a new book, Mapping the Airways, conjures the romance of those early days with a collection of maps from the British Airways Heritage Collection, the airline’s archive of records and artifacts.
“Aviation was a revolutionary way to travel,” says author Paul Jarvis, the collection’s curator. “There was an air
