Thesis statement Argumentative Essay

The paper “Alaskan Aviation” will provide with a thorough examination of aviation in the region of Alaska, employing the knowledge of the three main spheres: Alaskan environmental conditions, history of its aviation, and the ethics of flying.

The Chapter I of the paper will outline the geographic characteristics and weather conditions which determined the functions and the influenced the evolution of Alaskan aviation. Then Chapter II will proceed to the study of the Alaskan aviation itself. Fist, the historical approach will be used to distinguish the development of the two main categories: military and civil aviation.

Second, the history of the military aircraft will be given in a more general way, while the description of civil aircraft will consist of the particular examples of the histories of Alaskan airlines, and bush flying. This difference in historical views on military and civil aircrafts is dictated by the thing that the detailed examination of the military aircraft branch is beyond the scope of the paper.

And finally, the third chapter of the paper will focus on the personality of an Alaskan pilot, with the discussion of the conduct and character traits required by the ethics of flying and directed to overcome the difficulties of the profession. The main points and the findings of the paper will be summarized in the conclusion. The purpose of the study is to characterize the aviation in Alaska, to show its critical role for the region and to mention the challenges of the profession of a pilot. Challenging conditions of Alaska’s diverse environment.

Alaska’s Geography

The state of Alaska is the forty-ninth state, which entered the Union in 1959. It is situated in the extreme northwest of the North American continent. Also Alaska is the largest peninsular in the Western Hemisphere. The total area of Alaska goes up to 591, 004 square miles and includes 15, 000 square miles of inlets and fjords, 34, 000 of intended tidal coastline and 6,600 miles of the coast that fronts the open sea. (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004)

On the north and northwest the land of Alaska borders the Arctic Ocean and on the west it is washed by the Bering Sea and the Bering Strait. The Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Alaska border the territory of the state on the south. (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004) About 1.150 miles of high mountains separate the state from the neighbouring British Columbia province and the Canadian Yukon Territory.

(Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004) On the land of Alaska Mount McKinley, the highest peak of the North America, is situated. The height of the peak is 20,320 feet. (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004) The capital of Alaska – Juneau is situated in the southeast of the panhandle region.

Alaska consists of nine different environmental and physiographic regions. (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004) Most of the mainland panhandle region is composed of the Boundary Ranges. Also the area of Alaska contains a number of large ice fields, peaks, for example, Mount St. Elias that is 18,009 feet high, Arctic deserts, swamps, immense forests, active volcanoes and countless islands. (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004)

The western part of Alaska-Yukon border is the Chugach Range, which looks like a giant arc at the northern edge of the Gulf of Alaska. Alaska is considered to be the northernmost state, the westernmost state, and also the easternmost state of America, because the Aleutians extend over the 180th meridian into the Eastern Hemisphere. (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004)

The Panhandle, starting some 500 miles north of Seattle, nevertheless has the moist climate and thick forests associated with coastal Washington. It consists, on one side, of a 30-mile strip of mountainous mainland bordering British Columbia and, on the other, of the countless islands of the Alexander Archipelago — the remnants of ancient mountains submerged at the end of the ice age.

The result is one of the world’s most beautiful fjord areas, seen easily from ferries from Seattle which ply the famed Inland Passage along this coast. Towering forests of spruce and hemlock cover most of the lands, and the region holds the bulk of Alaska’s pulp and timber industry in its 550-mile length.

Tongass National Forest, a magnificent wilderness along the region’s glacier-capped fjords and waterways which includes 100-mile-long Admiralty Island, packed with wildlife (salmon, bald eagles, and brown bears), virtually the only island in the archipelago still largely in its primeval condition (Terris, 1962).

The U.S. Forest Service has committed itself to clear-cutting practically every marketable stand of spruce and hemlock in the Tongass National Forest. The lumber would not relieve any U.S. housing shortage but would be for export to Japan. Outside of lumber, the major income of the Panhandle is from fishing (especially salmon) and tourism (scenery plus the colorful Tlingit totem pole culture).

The Central Plateau, bigger than all of Texas, is a vast, rolling upland spotted with mountains. It rolls from the Canadian border to the Bering Sea, from the southern wall of McKinley and other peaks of the Alaskan Range to the northern barrier of the Brooks Range. The mighty Yukon River and its tributaries, dotted with native villages along the banks, flow out of Canada and through this region to the Bering Sea. Alaska’s big-game hunting centers here — for moose, caribou, bear, sheep, and, along the Bering Straits, for polar bear.