I grew up as an airline kid. My dad was a pilot for over 50 years, 29 of those as a pilot with United Airlines. As a result, we got to travel perhaps a bit more than some of my school friends. In any case, being an airline kid instilled both an interest in the airline industry and travel in general. Whenever I ride a commercial flight, even today, the first thing I do is look up the airlines’s rout maps in the magazine provided in the seat pocket. It help me dream of where I might go next, and of the life led by the pilots and cabin crew who take us passengers to all those far away places, represented by the lines and dots on the route map.
Gazing at maps like these was one of the reasons I became a Geographer. I wanted to be part of the magic of creating such communication tools and bringing real information to life in beautiful graphic form, but backed up by scientific data, which is what GIS allows us to do.
Below are a few samples of cool Airline Route maps that I enjoy:
For today’s blog, I simply offer these thoughts in relation to the excellent article by Andy Murdock of the Statesider. Here is the link to the article:
It is an excellent and inspiring read. Take a few minutes to enjoy it.
At Synthos, we are creating custom travel maps for people and their families to document and map their own travel adventures for display in their homes, or in any other way they choose. While there are several excellent Travel Mapping sites out there; we offer the option of creating a GIS based Travel Project and associated maps. The difference with our GIS based product is that it is a Living project. Since all the information is in real world coordinates and is stored in a database, you can modify your travel history as your list of trips expands. Our family updates our maps twice a year, as we love to travel.
Contact Tom at Synthos, LLC for more information on how you can create your custom travel map collection. 206-406-5246.