Back When Air Travel Was Special

Our family lived in Pullman WA for one year in '62-'63 when I was ten years old.
In already knew all commercial planes and was excited. The trip started onboard the beautiful Sud Aviation Super Caravelle and then over the ocean to Chicago on a Boeing 707. From Chicago to Spokane WA
On a DC6B.
In the summer of '63 we drove across the country to New York in our '53 Ford Customline.
From Idlewild NY we took a B707 again to Frankfurt and from there on to Stockholm we boarded Lufthansa's Lockheed Super Constellation. Still proud about that.

I remember the glory days of air travel when you would sit down in your seat and the arm rests had those nasty little flip up ashtrays.

Those were the days!

In 1970 I had to get from the north coast of Scotland to Birmingham (England) to collect a new Land-Rover and drive it back. At Wick Airport the passengers had to step on scales at check-in so the weight & balance of the Vickers Viscount could be calculated. The Viscount had wonderful large windows and from a window seat the flight Wick - Inverness - Glasgow was at a height that the sheep in the fields could be counted all the way on a lovely clear day. In the next seat was a foreman from the construction site I was working at, and of course he recognised me. So when he produces his bottle of whisky he says "Have a drink Jimmy!", I politely declined and the cabin attendants on seeing the bottle tried to take it away from him. Of course being Scots and on his way to something like a week or so off (after a lot of 7-day weeks working there [*]) there was no way he was going to give it up.



Next leg from Glasgow to Birmingham was at night and into rather turbulent weather in the BAC 1-11. On the approach to the landing the throttles were winding the engines constantly up and down.




First international flight was London - Montreal on a Douglas DC-8. As @Tony C. said the smoking / non-smoking arrangement was dreadful, one side of the cabin smoking, other side non 😡 The flight back from Montreal a few months later was rather strange. I don't remember the aircraft but the route was Montreal - Gander - Prestwick - Heathrow. A very long journey but the client had released me just in time to get home to defend my lead in a racing championship I had won the previous year and this was the only route I could book.




Later flights were so boring there are few I remember unless I was at the controls. One from Boston to Detroit very early one crisp morning the air was so clear that the captain got approval from ATC to circle the Niagara Falls twice. Once in each direction for both sides of the cabin to get a good view -- you can't see how scruffy the area round the Falls is (was?) from 33,000ft. One more from the Boston - Detroit days which I did far too many times in the early 1980s. I forget the airline but as I got on I said to the cabin attendant "If you are serving that awful BBQ chicken again this is the last time I fly with you." I gave a little goodbye wave as I got off 😗

[*] 12 hours each day Mon to Sat, 8 hours Sunday. Of course the extra overtime pay was great even on my apprentice basic £500 per annum !

Well if AA is good enough for The Fonz....

The first plane to cross the Atlantic converted to an airliner….. They were your drawing room / horse drawn carriage with wings on.
The golden age of flying and at least you crashed with a decent brandy and a cigar.
Given the modern safety record I still think I prefer the service on the ground now which keeps them flying even if the service in the air was way better back then :0)
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They were happy days

The first aircraft I ever sat foot in still exists 😗
C-54 Skymaster which was a bar in the 1970s
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