Circumnavigation

For an astronaut stationed on the International Space Station it takes 90 minutes to circumnavigate earth. For Phileas Fogg it took 89 days. For a gap year student, well, it takes a year. The idea that we can even contemplate a trip around the world as a thing demonstrates how dramatically more accessible air travel has become.

If you want to fly around the world you have a few choices. Most circumnavigators tend to fly along the equator, as there are plenty of routes and you can head East or West. If you want to go North to South you need your own plane.

To celebrate Pan Am’s 50th birthday in 1977, the airline took a Boeing 747SP and flew it around the world crossing both the North and South Pole. Their celebratory flight started in San Francisco, headed up north to cross the North Pole on its way to London. From there they continued down South to Cape Town. The next leg of the journey was entirely unique, flying straight to Auckland crossing over the South Pole, before continuing back to San Francisco and completing the circle. There is a great little film about this flight on YouTube and you can read more about Circumnavigation in Volume 5, out now.

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Discover Vintage Maps Online

Direction of Travel is a print publication at heart but it has small, somewhat unknown, digital sister. The small site hosts a number of vintage airline maps that you can explore in an entirely new way. It includes maps by Pan Am, United Air Lines, American Overseas Airlines (The Plotting Chart), Sabena and finally Ala Littoria (Mussolini’s favourite airline). More will be added over time. You can explore these in the comfort of your web browser and because it deals with detailed historical maps, it really does work best on desktop.

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Volumes

Volume 1

An all American affair that zooms in on the route maps made by American Airlines and United Airlines from the late 1930s to the 1970s. We also cover the history of the moving map and look at Honolulu Airport.

Volume 5

A Cold War Special Edition. Aeroflot, the national Soviet airline meets Pan Am, the unofficial national carrier of the United States. Maps and stories.

Volume 3

A detailed look at the maps made by two very different airlines separated by the Alps. Alitalia and Swissair. We re-imagine a flight in 1930s from Rome to Brindisi with a few stops along the way.

Volume 4

We head East and explore the diverse maps made by Air India and Japan Airlines. We take a plane from Tokyo to London with a stopover in Anchorage, Alaska.

Airport picture

For decades I have been making work about flying. Direction of Travel is one such project. Others include a long running portrait of the villages surrounding Heathrow airport. Another are photos from airports around the world, following in the footsteps of Fischli & Weiss.

Singapore Changi, 2012