The mariner has for many years been able to procure charts for practically any waterway in the world and in most cases has the selection of a variety of scales to suit his purposes. The air navigator has not been so happily placed.

Shortly after the end of the 1914–18 war the nations subscribing to the International Convention to Air Navigation agreed the need for world cover in aeronautical charts at various scales, but, up to the commencement of the last war, the 1:10,000,000 basic map, for which the French government accepted responsibility, was the only series to reach completion. Various areas were also charted at scales of. 1:1,000,000 and larger.