JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. American Geographical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Geographical Review. A IR transport is one of the main methods of passenger travel in the Soviet Union. The very size of the country contributes to the importance of air travel; the savings in time as compared with rail travel are enormous. Even before the introduction of regular jet flights on the major trunk lines, travel times by air were a fraction of those required by other forms of travel. The relatively low cost of air transport and the availability of through flights to favorite travel goals add to the popularity of the airlines: the Soviet citizen is fond of travel.To the non-Russian traveler a trip on a Soviet airline is likely to be full of surprises. Even the size of the main air terminals those at Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad, and Kharkov may come as a surprise; anyone passing through Vnukovo, the more frequented of Moscow's two major civil airports, will find there the bustle associated with great centers of international air travel. The bulletin board at Vnukovo lists destinations ranging from Prague to Peking, from Vilnius to Vladivostok, and the languages spoken in the main hall recall London or Idlewild or Orly.
TYPES OF AIRCRAFTAboard the plane the Western traveler finds many of the regular features of air travel missing. This is particularly noticeable to the American, used to finding familiar fixtures, labeled in English and the local tongue, all over the Western world. Aeroflot, the Soviet international airline, uses the Ilyushin aircraft as its work horse. The IL-14, with 18 seats, and the IL-14M, with 24 seats, are most frequently used on longer domestic flights. The IL-12, used on long and medium-range flights, has 21 seats; the IL-2, most popular on "local" trips, seats 15 people. A perusal of the official Aeroflot timetable' I "Raspisaniye dvizheniya samoletov," Summer, 1957. >
