Levant En-Route Chart - High Altitude Sheet Number 8 (Royal Air Force Flight Information Publication)

Sheet 82x59cm with the same map printed in blue and black to both sides. Very good, neatly folded, with small area of dusting, and a single quite neatly drawn red crayon line tracing a route between Luqa (Malta) and Nicosia (Cyprus) on one of the two sides (the other side unmarked). Printed by No.2 Survey Production Centre (SPC) (Air), War Office, on 7 December 1960. This edition is dated 5 December 1960. It came months after the Turkish Coup and Cypriot independence, with the next edition indicated as due just weeks later, on 28 December 1960. It was issued during the major restructuring of British forces during 1959-61 that divided the Middle East Command into British Forces Arabian Peninsula (based at Aden) and Near East Command (based at Cyprus). RAF Cyprus had become especially important to protecting British interests after the Suez Crisis and withdrawal from Iraq and Egypt, with the RAF retaining significant strategic presence at other bases including Malta and Nicosia. About centred on Istanbul, this sheet's coverage is bounded by Bucharest (N), Ain Zalah (E), Cairo (S), and Malta (W) on a 1/4M scale. Details include settlements and other geographical locations, and a dense network of named controlled air sectors, spaces and corridors with navigation and communication data, and the zones allocated to RAF Cyprus and RAF Malta. The Sectors included are Baghdad, Damascus, Ankara, Istanbul, Nicosia, Bucharest, Athens, Cairo, Malta, Brindisi, Rome, Italy, Belgrade and Zagreb.…