Pages

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Scenes From When Flying Was Still Civilize



There once was a Golden Age Of Flying. You didn't have to queue up, strip down, and surrender your beverage to the Goon Squad. Meals were served on real plates instead of sad, soggy cardboard boxes. The act of traveling itself was a pleasant part of the journey—instead of a necessary act of mass-transit. These conveniences still exist for the very rich, but there was a time when all of us had access to a fantastic world in the sky. That world is never coming back, but it's still nice to look back and fondly remember.

Passengers in the observation car and lounge aboard the airship R-100, complete with awesome Lloyd Loom wicker dining chairs. November 1929.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedSource: J. Gaiger/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

Waiter service aboard Imperial Airways 'Scylla' during its flight from London to Paris, circa 1935.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: J. B. Collingham/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Circa 1945.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

May 1946: SA class of TWA air hostesses selected to attend a course at the TWA headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri. They are about to receive instruction in grooming, charm, poise, conversational French, and entertainment.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Bert Garai/Keystone Features/Getty Images

Dancing with the Vickers V 700 Viscount, the latest commercial airliner of the British European Airways at Northolt airport, in 1949.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Fox Photos/Getty Images

Portable altar used to deliver mass to passengers and crew who may have missed church. Idlewild Airport, 1950.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Orlando /Three Lions/Getty Images

On board the world's first jet airliner service, 1952.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: PNA Rota/Getty Images

April 1952: Building sand castles in the play area at Northolt Airport

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Reg Speller/Fox Photos/Getty Images

Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner arriving in London. November, 1952.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Reg Birkett/Keystone/Getty Images

A lounge compartment on an airliner, designed by Henry Dreyfuss, circa 1955.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Orlando/Three Lions/Getty Images

New York's East Side Airlines Terminal, 1955.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Orlando/Three Lions/Getty Images

Chicago, 1956.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Evans/Three Lions/Getty Images

The restaurant inside the Queen's Building at London Airport (now Heathrow), 1956.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Stan Meagher/Express/Getty Images

Lunch aboard a BEA Vickers Viking passenger plane, 1958.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Fox Photos/Getty Images

Passengers aboard the new Comet 4. The BOAC plane flew from New York to London in under six and a half hours. Late 1950s.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Hulton Archive/Getty Images//Douglas Miller/Keystone/Getty Images

1960: A line-up of flight attendants who will serve on board the Concorde

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Keystone/Getty Images

The 1960s: Business travellers walking through the main lobby of Moisant International Airport, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: H. Armstrong Roberts/Retrofile/Getty Images

Flight attendant uniforms, United Airlines, 1968.


1969: Concorde 002 flies over Nelson's Column in London's Trafalgar Square, and a French model with a hairstyle to match

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Central Press/Getty Images//Keystone/Getty Images

This is how Russian spies were treated in 1969: Morris and Lona Cohen, who worked in London under the assumed names Peter and Helen Kroger, leave London's Heathrow Airport on a BEA flight bound for Warsaw. Jailed in 1961 for their involvement with the Portland Spy Ring, they are being released in exchange for Gerald Brooke, a British citizen arrested in the Soviet Union.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

First class aboard a Boeing 747 in 1970.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Fox Photos/Getty Images

A Pan Am airhostess serving champagne in the first class cabin of a Boeing 747, 1970.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Tim Graham/Getty Images

Hugh Hefner, his girlfriend Barbi Benton, and the Playboy DC 9 jetliner are welcomed to Heathrow Airport, 1970.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Central Press/Getty Images

Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones plays a Thomas electric organ behind the bar on board a private Boeing 720B airliner known as 'The Starship', used by the band on its North American tour, 1973.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

8th March 1977: Muslim passengers waiting for flights at Terminal 3, Heathrow Airport, London, facing Mecca for prayers.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Graham Morris/Evening Standard/Getty Images

British entrepreneur Richard Branson inaugurates his new airline Virgin Atlantic Airways, June 1984.

Scenes From When Flying Was Still CivilizedPhoto: Mike Moore/Express/Getty Images

Have a good photo from the Lost Age Of Merry Flying? Share with us in the comments!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.