Six flights wasprobably four flights more than the median in that decade. Even today, with flying being vastly cheaper and many more people flying, a huge percentage of people do not fly, ever, and the median number of flights taken by a person every year is no more than one or two.
The MEAN number of flights a year taken by an American is three. However, that’s driven up by a small number of very frequent fliers.
My first flight was 1940 on a DC3. They weighed the passengers and luggage and told you where to sit in order to adjust the CG. You got free chewing gum to keep your ears from popping on take off.
My first jet flight was in the mid-60s. It was the Dallas - San Francisco leg of a flight from Huntsville AL. There were only half a dozen passengers on board. You ordered meals from a Trader Vic menu. In first class you got a book of matches with your name printed on it and if you were late they paged you in the airport. Oh yeah, the Dallas terminal was empty. It echoed when you walked.
Watching the landforms of the US from airliner altitude is more interesting than the current drivel on the video.
From a UK perspective, things changed with the advent of pack-em-in charter flights for cheap package holidays to the Mediterranean in the early 60s. Before then it was definitely something for the well-heeled, if not entirely luxurious, though often imagined as such (I seem to remember some daft romcom movie from the 30s where a couple on a flight went out on to a promenade deck, and I don’t think it was meant to be an airship).
Before WW2, there were flights across the Empire, since it could be done in shortish hops, and treated rather like a cruise, with a bit of time on the ground in various exotic places.
After the war the government pushed ahead with trying to get a pole position in what was expected to be a golden age of flying, hedging their bets by backing a fast jet (the Comet, which was great until they learnt the hard way about metal fatigue), a superlarge luxury propeller plane for the Atlantic and other long-distance routes (the Brabazon, which was dropped as too large and expensive) and the Princess flying boat (also for luxury), which ended up mothballed, but still visible in the1950s. In the end, only the revised Comet was a success - speed won out over slow luxury.
With respect to the meals there are several reasons why the food quite often is less than satisfactory. The Time article sums it up, but feeding anyone a superb meal inflight is a real challenge. Factor in the fact that planes today also carry a lot more passengers and the problem is compounded. Feeding 20 people in KLM Royal class (sadly no more) a gourmet feast is going to be less of a feat than feeding 300 people in Economy seating where not only do you have less money per seat to feed them but you also have many varying tastes.
It’s also a challenge to prepare menus that will taste like passengers expect them to at 8000-foot cabin altitudes. It’s easy to just dispense with food service entirely, though.
Pity that stand-up comics can’t talk about airline food anymore, though - they’re stuck with Relationships and Life in NY/LA.
One thing I’ve noticed for a few years now, is that I am seemingly unable to carry on a conversation with a seat mate. It’s like our faces are just too damn close and you’re almost swapping spit to chat. I miss carrying on a casual flirtation with members of the opposite sex while flying
Yeah…“pulling an OJ” came to mean something very different in the 90s.:eek:
Depends. In the U.S. the only change I can remember is when the airlines (or the government) figured out that alcohol carried a lot more kick in the air than on the ground, and the two-drink limit was imposed.
This. The last time I thought flying was exciting and fun was the 1970’s.
If you pull them up far enough.