On almost-planar graphs (Q1753021)

Summary: A nonplanar graph \(G\) is called \textit{almost-planar} if for every edge \(e\) of \(G\), at least one of \(G\backslash e\) and \(G/e\) is planar. In [Some problems for graph minors. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University. (PhD Thesis) (1990)], \textit{B. Gubser} characterized 3-connected almost-planar graphs in his dissertation. However, his proof is so long that only a small portion of it was published. The main purpose of this paper is to provide a short proof of this result. We also discuss the structure of almost-planar graphs that are not 3-connected.