southwest Swiss mountains

Forums: Lyon, Geneva, Original Writing, Europe
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I'm writing a novel and am looking for answers to these two questions:
1. the name of the mountains one would fly over from Geneva to Lyon, France,
2. assuming one was flying a single engine plane, around in 1940, about how long would flight time be from Geneva to Lyon?
Thanks for any help,
Steve

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Type: Question • Score: 6 • Views: 2,446 • Replies: 20

@steveo1234,

What mountains .... your kidding right????

1 Reply

@Joe Dunn,

JoeDunn:
When you don't know the answer, the custom on the forum is to not make a comment because when you do so, you are serving no one and just adding to the noise.

Steveo":
In Geneva, you have Lake Geneva and the foot of Jura Mountains. Nearby are the Alps, and Mont-Blanc, the highest peak in Europe.

I can't tell you the specific specs and details of that plane. You need to Google the cruising speed and altitude capability of that plane and whether or not the cabin was able to be pressurized.

0 Replies

Is this how writers do research nowadays?

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@Tes yeux noirs,

Bad students and bad unpublished writers might.

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What is it they say about true genius? Ten percent inspiration and ninety percent perspiration. As time goes by I see the truth of that more and more.

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@steveo1234,

I know there are very good maps and very detailed too with every mountain top on them. Unfortunately I do not have one here otherwise I would have been happy to help you.
Regarding flying: there must be some aviation place in Switzerland where you can ask the question.
Another thing 1940 - there you might even have to ask Germany or France regarding the military in and around Lyon 1940.

1 Reply

@saab,

It would be even more interesting to know the (registration) nationality of that plane: all foreign air traffic was forbidden in Switzerland since 1939, and the Swiss air branch of the army shot down every unidentified plane.

An even more serious problem would have occurred when entering the Vichy-France airspace, controlled by the German military...

As a map, you could use a topographic one

You can enlarge the view on the >original website<

An aeronautical chart would be much better, though. But I have some doubts that you can find one of that period easily.

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@Walter Hinteler,

<chuckling>

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@Walter Hinteler,

An aeronautical chart would be much better, though.
I have a map made of silk so when it folds and is carried in a pocket it does not break. I do not know if it is auronautical or not.
The Heights engraved on the map are in Metres
It shows Belgium & Germany (new frontier) also France, Germany and Switzerland
I know it was used either by British or American soldiers. It is big enough to use as a scarf.

1 Reply

@saab,

saab wrote:

I have a map made of silk so when it folds and is carried in a pocket it does not break. I do not know if it is auronautical or not.

This is a modern aeronautical chart (of Lyon airport)

And this an US-American from 1942

1 Reply

@Walter Hinteler,

Thank you
You know what. The pilot was probably Swiss otherwise he could not have left from Geneva. But probalby he was shot down before he reached Lyon.
Sad that the novel gets to be a short story.

1 Reply

@saab,

He can't be Swiss.
As a Swiss, he would know that any knowledge about "southwest Swiss mountains" would be totally irrelevant for a flight from Geneva to Lyon

1 Reply

@Walter Hinteler,

I'm confused. Isn't Lyon southwest of Geneva?

1 Reply

@Ragman,

Ragman wrote:

I'm confused. Isn't Lyon southwest of Geneva?

I didn't doubt that. My response was about the "southwest Swiss mountains".

1 Reply

@Walter Hinteler,

thanks for your reply. Sorry but I'm still confused. Are not there mountains in southwest Switzerland before you hit the border into France?

1 Reply

There are the Berner Alpen and the Walliser Alpen in South west Switzerland, but the OP asked about a flight from Geneva to Lyon. Geneva is immediately adjacent to the Swiss-French border at the western end of a neck of Swiss territory that sticks out from Switzerland to the north west of those Alps, and to get to Lyon as the crow flies you don't really cross any mountains, unless you count some Jura foothills between (say) Bellegarde sur Valserine and Ambérieu-en Bugey.

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@Ragman,

Geneva's city borders are to 70% state borders France as well

But I couldn't find a political map of the 1940's - the one or other of the suburbs might have been independent municipalities in those times (and was too lazy to look up the history of those)

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Some Geneva municipal bus routes terminate in France and quite a number of French people commute to & from jobs in Geneva.

1 Reply

@Tes yeux noirs,

There are quite a few lines ending in France. And many people live in France (but work in Geneva) because it's cheaper.

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southwest Swiss mountains

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