Airways – Infographics for the People

THE EVOLUTION OF THE AIRLINE ROUTE MAP.

They’re mostly found near the back of in-flight magazines, along with profiles of jets and lots of aircraft manufacturer metrics that probably only appeal to about one person per flight, maximum. (Yes, I’m that person. I want to know the wingspan of an Airbus 320.) You can find some network information in these spider-web extravaganzas, but it’s quite hard work, especially in areas where there’s lots of flights. The one above shows Delta’s US network.

Of course, this type of map grew in route complexity as commercial air travel expanded. Early maps were pictorial and rather engaging. These historical examples, with easily defined routes, are all from the 1940s. Jet-powered airliners didn’t come into service until the 1950s, with the consequent dramatic expansion of flight networks.
Below, American Airlines, 1945. Click on the image for a larger version.

A detail. “Oh look, there’s a steam shovel down there, just like on the map!”

Delta Air Lines, 1946.

Air France, 1948.

BOAC, 1949.

The historical images above can be downloaded in high resolution from the David Rumsey Map Collection. https://www.davidrumsey.com

Talking of BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation), I saw this 747 decked out in retro (and excellent) livery at Heathrow Airport last summer. It was painted to celebrate British Airway’s 100-year anniversary.

BA’s current look.

The maps gradually outgrew their format as air travel expanded. With no possibility to isolate and examine a single route, they’re of marginal effectiveness in print. Obviously the lines are not flightpaths. So an airline route map is more a diagram than a map, with the lines arcing farther in an attempt to avoid all the other lines.