Life — August 1, 1918 — page 21: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes rapid modern transportation and ambitious travel ambitions. It depicts a massive airship or aircraft (with a rotating propeller visible) carrying numerous passengers in compartmentalized cabin sections, hovering above cultivated farmland. A small airplane flies below it. The title references Jules Verne's "Around the World in Eighty Days," suggesting this cartoon mocks contemporary expectations that aviation technology would eventually enable circumnavigating Earth in just eighty *hours*—a dramatic compression of travel time. The industrial cityscape visible on the horizon reinforces the theme of technological progress shrinking global distances. The cartoon likely dates from the early-to-mid 20th century, when aviation was rapidly advancing and such futuristic speculation seemed increasingly plausible to satirists.