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Show IF? Not Reverse the Process? "A New York village has "outlawed the airplane" nays a Hev.'.-i story. 1-Ls council has passed an ordinance forbidding any airfield in the village limits. Hut the village, of course, can't prevent airplanes flying over it; nor can it prevent planes landing within it, in emergencies. emer-gencies. The action, however, calls attention to something that, 'sooner or later, must be settled. And that is: Who owns 'the air? The present theory is that, when you buy land, you buy to I he center of the earth one way and that you control the air above your land as far as you want to go. Obviously, if you didn't own the air over your land, you couldn't build a house. According to the present theory of ownership, every iplane that flies over ycur house is a trespasser. You have l he right to defend yourself against trespassers. Does this mean you have a right to shoot down airplanes, or doesn't it? " These are not merely quaint questions. , They concern an actual problem. It has got to be solved sooner or later. Some day, some home owners are going to discover that their homes are under a densely-traveled commercial plane route; and that the noise of the ships, flying low at all hours of the day or night, constitutes a nuisance. Some excitable home-owner is agoing to take a potshot at a plane and then, maybe, the courts will decide if the ship was, technically, a trespasser. , Well, that'll be interesting. But we suggest a better way would be to work out some sort of national rule in the matter, in a peaceful way. Perhaps a rule limiting possession to a certain height over one's land would be a way out. Perhaps not. Put the question ought to be settled and settled soon. |