Back When Air Travel Was Special

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The Caribou was a Canadian designed and built aircraft. The gap couldn’t possibly have been one inch! More likely 25.7 mm! 😉
Depends when in the mid 70s! When did we go metric?
 
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The Caribou was a Canadian designed and built aircraft. The gap couldn’t possibly have been one inch! More likely 25.7 mm! 😉
And even that is incorrect......it's 25.4 mm! We would never have gotten to the moon with that much error.
 
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Canada went metric on April 1, 1975. In Alberta, the inch is 25.7 mm! Everything is bigger in Alberta! 😉 Yes. You are right. Sorry you missed the joke! Many fellows wish there was 25.7 mm to the inch. 😁
 
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My first flight was Oakland, CA, to Burbank, CA, on PSA. Probably a 727. My uncle invited my mom and I to fly down and go to Disneyland with him and my cousin. I still have the ticket: $12.50. Half price for children under 12.
 
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My first was also on a 727, Eastern Airlines from Detroit to Mexico City, on my own, when I was 15...
 
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My first was also on a 727, Eastern Airlines from Detroit to Mexico City, on my own, when I was 15...

I got that beat - although I had flown before. I think I was about 8 and flying from UK to Munich in the seventies on my own. There were two other kids (one was a young girl maybe 4 or 5) we all had to have our passports on stupid red lanyards but we were first on and got lots of attention from the crew ...(not in a creepy way :0). Anyway as I was so grown up I persuaded the other kids that we should take off the goofy lanyards for the flight. I still recall me and the other boy waving back at the little girl as we were led off the flight to customs while the flight crew were searching the plane and toilets for her passport (whoops / my very childish bad :0)
 
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I don’t know about you lot, but modern air travel is far and away better and more comfortable and much safer than any of this retro nonsense.

People, however, have become much worse.

 
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Modern passenger airliners are fine for those who just want to get to their destination, and how they get there is immaterial, as long as it is fast! But give me a 60 minute flight on a DC3 at 8,000 feet elevation, any time!
 
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I don’t know about you lot, but modern air travel is far and away better and more comfortable and much safer than any of this retro nonsense.

People, however, have become much worse.


Her and Mike Tyson should be on the same flight...
 
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Her and Mike Tyson should be on the same flight...
Hey, that good 'ole boy wasn't wearing a mask and endangering the entire plane with his non-compliance. Of course Karen didn't have her mask on either. It's all stupid at this point. Pure Kabuki theater.
 
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Flying was fun pre-9/11. The cattle car experience with the dressed down, disciplined down, dumbed down crowd - not so much.

When I was a kid the first flight was on a 707.

Mrs. noelekal and I are eccentric. We still dress up for air travel.
 
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There Were some cracking planes in the golden age (wicker chairs anyone) . Also maybe I maligned them on safety.
The Handley page HP42 did not loose a single passenger during its 10 years flying people around the empire. Maybe more aircraft should have candelabra fitted (Hadley Page W8).. funny but at the start of WW2 they were given to the the RAF who managed to crash them all in short order. The toilet room in the last photo looks a bit breezy/ don’t take your hat old boy…..bombs away :0)
.
 
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Anybody remember Midwest Airlines in the U.S.? They flew the Boeing 717-200, a really nice regional aircraft, exclusively in a 2x2 one class configuration. Every seat was leather, generously proportioned, had a headrest and a footrest, decent leg room, and they served warm chocolate chip cookies on board. Now THAT was a great airline!
 
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Tangential, but I find this model, which I bought several years ago, to be evocative of mid-century air travel. A Douglas DC-7C, originally displayed in a travel agency in Stockholm; purchased from the owner's son.

SAB2.jpg
You might be surprised to know that model is worth a fair few $$$ today.
 
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Concorde flight Feb 5th 1982: Paris - New York Washington : Caviar and BELL'S whisky , 20 y.o.

 
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Since the onset of the Corona pandemic I have taken close to 200 individual flight legs around the world. During the peak of corona the aircraft were empty and getting from A to B entailed going via C,D,E,F because of all the grounded flights and closed cities. Around May 2021 things lightened up and aircraft started to fill up again. Today it's hell on earth because people have forgotten what little manners they had prior to the pandemic regarding flying and all aircraft are fully booked. Every flight this year has been full house without one single spare seat and a very horrible experience.

Thankfully the guys I work for allow me to fly business class if the flight is over 3 hours. This rule means I will deliberately fly backwards to fly forwards ensuring my flight is over 3 hours long.

If you are going to fly business class I would recommend Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways, Emirates, Singapore Airlines & Thai Airways as they have great business class cabins.

Flying today is nowhere close to yesteryear because the industry changed. Ryanair replaced trains, coaches and boats with the price they offer for flights. I always find it funny hearing people complaining they have to pay $400 for a Luxembourg-Geneva-Luxembourg flight. I always tell them to take a taxi and see how it works out for them, usually ends the complaining.
 
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You might be surprised to know that model is worth a fair few $$$ today.

Thanks. I actually pay some attention to the market, though not to calculate potential profits. I like to peruse, or hunt, as I imagine that I might someday be tempted to buy a different one, made by the same Dutch company. But as you suggest, the values of the good ones have risen considerably, and so I'm not optimistic about finding a bargain.
 
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Thanks. I actually pay some attention to the market, though not to calculate potential profits. I like to peruse, or hunt, as I imagine that I might someday be tempted to buy a different one, made by the same Dutch company. But as you suggest, the values of the good ones have risen considerably, and so I'm not optimistic about finding a bargain.
I do a bit of collecting myself and have a varied collection of modern and collector pieces. My main focus is on the Boeing 707. The wife is an ex Air Hostess so allows a certain number to be displayed, the remainder are packed away in boxes in the cellar along with all my other bits and pieces.

These guys have some amazing models and are a real throw back to the era this thread is discussing https://www.art-aviation.com