Transatlantic Aviation: Introduction

Besides natural barriers, human-made obstacles have played an important role in the development of aviation. The context of the nation state was a major influence. National states stood for national interests and the defence of borders and sovereignty. These were conducive factors for the development of technologies that resulted in armed craft that used the air medium to defend or further the national interest. National interests were not absent from the civil and commercial use of the air either. The history of commercial aviation is fraught with conflicts over landing and transport rights, resulting from states’ sovereignty in the air. For these reasons, operating in the air environment has always been challenging. This special issue of the Journal of transatlantic Studies offers five contributions that revolve around the military and commercial manifestations of natural and human challenges in the field of aeronautics