World Airways

Global aviation map highlighting the impact of World War II.

According to accompanying text in the lower left, “the map attempts to give you a simplified, over-all picture of the world’s airways as they existed at the outbreak of war, as they are now with certain lines suspended by war, and with a few U.S. lines projected.”

The fact that the U.S. was able to project new commercial airlines in the middle of a global conflict is indicative of its unique experience in the war, further highlighted by America’s bisected position on the map, allowing for access across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The map and text also allude to German accessibility to South America, a matter that would become increasingly scrutinized in the years immediately after the war. The image was drawn by Boris Artzybasheff and published in a 1941 edition of Fortune Magazine.