Anyone here ever flown commercial prior to 1971?

In My Humble Opinion
1

What was flying like out of a commercial airport pre-DB Cooper? I remember what it was like pre-9/11 and there was a lot of jerking off, but not as much as the last 20+ years. But before 1971 what was it like? Was there so much fucking around? Pre-board, Pre-this, Pre-that, pre-kissmyass. I swear it’s getting worse! Was there any security? Were there professionals whose sole job seems to be to try to get you to miss your flight? Could you just buy a ticket and not have to worry about who you are or where your ID is?

If you have flown pre-1971 tell us of your experience. This is not a forum for you to explain how important those measures are. I just want to hear stories of how nice it must have been to get on a plane in the same manner one does a bus or train. Find your seat, STFU, hang on, here we go!

2

I was pretty young, but my family did fly commercial a few times before 1971.

Mostly, I had my little face plastered to the window oo-ing and aa-ing over the airplane and clouds (remember, I grew up to get a pilot’s license).

But getting on the airplane was like getting on a bus. You drove to the airport, parked, got out, in our case checked our luggage, then waited for the airplane to pull up. When it got there there wasn’t a “skybridge”, you walked outside, there was a staircase up against the side of the airplane and you went up and sat down in your seat.

No pre-check. No security to go through. No ID. Nothing at all like that. Just show that you had a ticket, which you might have purchased less than five minutes ago from the ticket counter.

3

My first airline fight was in 1968. Broomstick covered it very well. I’d add that on my flight, I was able to walk into the cockpit and talk to the pilots during the trip (Lockheed Electra, IIRC there were 3 - Capt, FO and Flight Engineer). FTR: I was accompanied by my Uncle who was a pilot for that airline. I don’t know whether cockpit visits were common for everyone.

No security at all. Just walked up and bought a ticket, then out to the big stairway. My folks accompanied me onto the plane (I was a minor) and they left after I was seated.

4

And after the flight took off, your father took you to the cockpit, where the stewardess opened the door for you go in and say hello to the pilot. I did that several times when I was 9 and 10.And I think they even gave me a toy.

This scene in the movie “Airplane” was pretty realistic.*

–
*. (well, without certain parts of the then-allowable humor :slight_smile: )

It was a different world.

5

I flew in 1969 and remember it as Broomstick described, plus visiting the cockpit as chappachula describes. Also a “stewardess” (flight attendant) gave me an official wings pin.

Oh, also, everybody dressed up.

6

I know you’re not allowed to do that anymore.

7

I flew as a child a few times in the late 1960s, once as an unaccompanied minor, which was especially fun as the nice stewardess ladies took good care of me.

The only thing I would add to the above recollections is the fact that chewing gum was either handed out or readily available for the asking, to help with ear-popping from pressure changes.

I have very sensitive/difficult ears and even with the technological improvements in consistent cabin pressurization, I still often have terrible trouble clearing my ears. Years ago, but obviously after it fell out of common practice, I asked a flight attendant for a stick of chewing gum because I took for granted that they would provide it. She looked at me like I was an entitled nutcase before telling me hell, no. Since then I have made sure to bring my own gum/mints/lozenges.

8

I flew in 1972 and I don’t think D.B. Cooper really had that much of an effect on how airports worked, other than to make it impossible to open the rear door on a 727 in flight. There wasn’t much in the way of security. I was a little kid, and unknown to my mother, I had brought a toy cap gun with me that looked like a real revolver if you didn’t look at it too closely. We had already checked in our luggage, so the guy at the counter made my mother put it in her purse to keep it hidden, and that was that. I think it’s a fair bet that it wouldn’t have been handled that way today.

There were a lot more hijackings in the early 70s, many of them after Cooper. I think it was around 1974 or 1975 that they really started to clamp down as far as security goes.

We flew on one of them new-fangled 747 planes, so everyone was excited about that. I got to go up into the cockpit once the plane was in flight, and they gave me a toy 747 made out of balsa wood. This type of thing, only shaped like a 747:

Like @Napier, I also got a wing pin. The toy plane and wing pin were given to me by a stewardess. They weren’t called Flight Attendants back then.

We were still in the golden age of flying back then (if just barely), so everyone was super nice, and they fed you decent food. My mother took care of IDs and passports and that sort of thing so I have no idea what that was like.

While security does factor into some of it, I think most of what the OP is complaining about has more to do with just trying to shove everyone through the system as fast as possible these days. The golden age of flight is definitely long gone. Not only is the airport a madhouse, but the planes themselves pack you in like steerage. They carefully schedule flights to avoid meal times, so that all they have to serve you is a bag of trail mix, and not even that on shorter flights. They want you to eat in the super-expensive airport facilities where you pay $20 for a McDonald’s hamburger. Everything is about maximizing profits, not providing good service.

Smoking was also a thing. There were curtains that were supposed to separate the smoking from non-smoking sections of the plane, but smoke still drifted into the non-smoking section. Not everything was better back then.

Another thing from back then that you don’t see today were the Hare Krishnas and other religious/political groups that made a beeline for you as soon as you entered the airport. I think the Krishnas used to hand out flowers. Lots of other folks would try to force pamphlets on you. They made fun of this in the movie Airplane, but I don’t think folks in the younger generations who watch the movie these days really get the joke.

I avoid flying as much as possible these days. It has become absolutely miserable.

9

Far far later than DB Cooper, in the year of our lord 1987 or thereabouts I booked a flight to visit my family during Christmas vacation. I was a student on Long Island and the flight was to Atlanta. Instead of opting to fight westbound traffic to JFK or LaGuardia or freaking Newark, I decided to get a small puddle-hopper from the small Islip/MacArthur airport east of campus.

They had four entire gates. None of those portable umbilical walk-thru tubes that you clamber through to get from terminal to airplane innards — nope, walk across the tarmac and climb the ladder.

I waved my ticket and my driver’s license at the check-in station. “Oh yeah, that plane is s’posed to be ontime. You just sit right over there and I’ll give you a shout-out when it’s ready to board”. There were maybe 30 passengers in the terminal. So cute. They did indeed beckon to me personally when the time came, and I got in line, boarded, flew.

Landed in Atlanta. WTF, where’s my family, why isn’t anyone here to pick me up? I make a phone call. Get a bewildered parent. “Huh? I don’t understand… where are you? We’ll be there to pick you up when you… what do you mean you’re in Atlanta? At the airport? How’d you get down a day early??” I check my ticket stub. Well that’s interesting. My flight was for tomorrow!

So there was laxity and informality at least in the small airports for a long time after the DB Cooper incident. Presumably a lot less so after 9/11 of course.

10

I can remember doing this as a child in the 80s. I think 9/11 really put a stop to kids playing pilot.

11

I don’t even remember curtains. I remember once getting a no-smoking seat that was right on the line, and the people in the seats right in front of me were smoking.

I don’t remember whether my first flights were pre-1971 or shortly after; but I do remember just buying tickets; nobody cared who you were, but only if you had enough money for the ticket. And it was routine, if you were seeing somebody off, to wait with them at the boarding gate until they actually boarded the plane; no showing of ID needed, or restriction of the boarding area to only people actually flying. And you could bring whatever you wanted of your own food and drink.

I do remember the Hare Krishnas; but I don’t remember it being all that hard to just walk past them.

Last time I was on a plane was I think around 2005. I’ve been determinedly avoiding them ever since.

12

Really, what I remember most was being violently nauseated by the amount of cigarette smoke.

13

It bothers me now, but it didn’t use to bother me unless it was really thick. Which was convenient, because it was all over the place.

14

Late 60s-early 70s.
O’Hare to Chattanooga.
I was young, and very scared of heights.
No clear memories.

15

My first flight was in 1961, New York to the Congo. But I did lots of flying from Boston to New York starting in 1969. No ids, no baggage scanning, no prechecks. On the Eastern shuttle you bought your ticket on the plane (and they gave you a bagel.) Also, better food.

The nonsense didn’t start with DB Cooper, it was in response to the almost weekly hijackings of planes to Cuba. In December 1970 I brought my hamster on the plane in my camera case and no one noticed. In December 1976 that was no longer possible. (Different hamster.)
I seldom bought a ticket at the counter, except for the shuttle, but mostly from a travel agent. Paper ticket which you had better not lose.
When I read the early '60s vintage Nancy Drew books to my daughter I noticed that Nancy and friends ran to the ticket counter and bought a ticket, no checks, no problems. That was how it was back then.

16

I had a roommate who successfully smuggled a cat in her shirt in 1980-ish.

17

Not sure if it was D.B.Cooper, or highjackers wanting to take planes to Cuba, but security ramped up in the '70s. Still, it was was minimal compared to nowadays through the '70s and '80s. It was very common to meet people at the gate; one just had to go through the metal detectors at security.

18

When I flew in China a few years ago, I received from my city tour guide a scrap of paper with a few numbers on it. I handed this to the check-in counter and was told my gate number. No tickets or passport examination.

19

Wait, what? When I last flew in China (I assume you mean domestically) the physical and document checks were intense and time consuming. At all airports. This was 2019. But similar on previous trips. I can’t imagine security has been ramped DOWN since then.

20

First time on a plane must have been in the 50s. Went to the airport maybe15 minutes before flight time, whole family walked to the gate, then my mother and I walked out onto the tarmac and up the steps onto what was likely a DC-6. Turns out we were on the wrong flight, had to debark again and get on the right plane. No security whatsoever other than someone checking your ticket against the roster. When we came back, we were met at the gate by family. This was in Juneau, AK, so take that into consideration.