• Javier Moya y Miguel Ángel Bernabé

• "Discover" Collection

Language of the publication:

  Spanish

When man overcame the challenge of rising up into the air and managed to reach a destination he himself had traced out, his major concern was that the weather conditions were not adverse and they would enable him conclude his flight as soon as possible. As early aircraft could not fly at high altitudes, pilots could guide themselves and know exactly where they were by looking at the land forms and basing themselves on specific local landmarks, such as railway lines when they travelled in daylight or shipping lights or lighthouses when they moved at night.

Gradually, coinciding with the development of aeronautical techniques, aircraft began to rise up to higher altitudes, even putting up with adverse weather conditions, making it necessary for them to have means other than just the pilot's sight to know exactly where they were flying. It was then that they began to draw up air navigation charts to enable them to know where they were in the skies. These were based on the shipping charts used by ships' crews to know accurately where they were when at sea. This was the origin of the "aeronautical charts": kinds of maps that offer essential data on the routes aircraft must follow.

Discovering Aeronautical Cartography in a very didactic way the whole process this discipline has gone through, from its very beginnings. It helps us learn how to interpret it, its symbols, applications, etc. This book will fill a gap in this task of bringing aeronautics and society closer together, something that Javier Moya and Miguel Bernabé have more than achieved and that Aena is pleased to offer readers who are inquisitive and curious to learn about this science, somewhat of an unknown entity for the general public.