Flyover country

This article is about the term. For the song by Jason Aldean, see Fly Over States.

Aerial view of Arkansas, part of "flyover country", as seen by an airline passenger

Flyover country and flyover states are Americanisms describing the region of the United States between the East and the West Coasts. The terms, which are often used in a pejorative sense, refer to the regions of the country passed over during transcontinental flights—e.g., flights between the nation's two largest cities, New York City and Los Angeles. Flyover country thus refers to the part of the country that many Americans only view by air and never actually see in person at ground level.

See also

• Middle America
• Heartland
• Hinterland
• Backcountry
• Red states and blue states

Further reading

• de Wit, Cary W. (2007). "Flyover country". In Sisson, Richard; Zacher, Christian K.; Cayton, Andrew Robert Lee. The American Midwest: an interpretive encyclopedia. Indiana University Press. pp. 66–68. ISBN 978-0-253-34886-9. 
• Robertson, David (2004). "FLYOVER COUNTRY". In Wishart, David J. Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. University of Nebraska Press. p. 386. ISBN 978-0-8032-4787-1.