Airspace

Wikipedia defines Airspace as “the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a particular country on top of its territory”. I came to understand the concept of airspace when I was very very young…..much before children usually think about such things. Not that I was a child prodigy in affairs of military strategy - but life teaches you a few things as you grow older and this was a very early lesson that I learnt.

As a child, I have always liked to cuddle with my near and dear ones. Although there have been some transmission losses in my cuddling tendencies on my path to adulthood, I have still retained a lot of it, which I am sure, my wife is very happy about. And if my wife is reading this, I would like to take this opportunity to remind her how lucky she is and what a wonderful, wise, kind, funny, noble, generous, good-looking husband she has. Anyway, I realised very early that cuddling, as a gesture could be used for the good of mankind as well as an effective weapon to irritate my older brother.

I specifically remember one instance when he was lying on a bed reading some book. I had nothing to read, nothing to do. So of course, I had to pass my time irritating him. I lay down next to him and put my arm around him, knowing very well that he hated it. He asked me very tersely to stay away. I moved my arm a little bit but still touched him.
“Don’t touch me”, he said.
“Why not?” I questioned, the ever curious child.
“Because I don’t like it”
“I like it”, I reiterated my stance on touching irritated older brothers.
“I won’t say it again. Do not touch me”, he growled.

Some doubts started creeping in my mind now about the feasibility of my current venture. So I moved my hand away except that I left a little finger touch his arm, just to see if I could get away with that. That would leave my pride intact as well as make him feel better. But I was just too optimistic. My brother put down his book and gave my offending finger a piece of his mind, except that he preferred action and not words to convey his message to my finger. I lay there for a few minutes, wincing in pain, nursing my finger and my wounded pride and also plotting my next plan of action to salvage something out of this situation.

That’s when I hit upon a brilliant idea. At least, at that time I thought it was brilliant. Since he had told me not to touch him, I circled my arm around him except that I hung it above him in the air without touching him. He cast a dirty look at me. I was so pleased with myself because not only was I exploiting a loophole in his directives and accomplishing my mission, but my arm was also blocking his vision and so he could not read. Anyway, before he could say anything, I offered my explanation that I was not touching him, so he should have no reason to complain. He said that I was violating his airspace. Naïve that I was, I replied in my innocence, “What do you mean? You can’t claim air.”
He did not say anything. My brother was a man of few words. Why waste time on words when you can do something much faster by action. This time, it hurt a lot more and I got the message very quickly. The meaning of airspace became clear to me. I had attained a kind of mini-nirvana.

I must say though that a few doubts still remained in my mind. I did voice my doubts later on when things had cooled off a bit. But I did not get any answers. I asked him “What happens if I do some shadow-boxing in my airspace and you happen to be in my airspace and my fists hit you. Can I be held at fault for that?” No answer, just a menacing look to discourage any such ideas.
“How much air can I claim as my airspace. Is there a standard?” No answer.
Coming to think of it on a larger scale, I wonder, vertically up to what height in the atmosphere can a country claim as its airspace? Do satellites violate airspace regulations? Or is airspace only limited to a height where air exists? Wikipedia says “There is no international agreement on the vertical extent of sovereign airspace (the boundary between outer space— which is not subject to national jurisdiction— and national airspace), with suggestions ranging from about 30 km (the extent of the highest aircraft and balloons) to about 160 km (the lowest extent of short-term stable orbits).” And so my questions shall remain unanswered.