The Golden Age of Flying: a fascinating look at the 1950s and '60s!

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Now is the golden age of flying, when a ticket doesn’t cost a year’s salary, and deadly crashes are rare.

Not overweight, and actually well dressed.

I HATE flying...

Very classy, but less affordable than now.

What about the clothes - I would definitely prefer something more comfortable😊

They should make non-smokers take the bus.

Worked for an Airline ticket counter late 60's!! Hand written tickets! Up at 3:30 am on duty at 4:30 am! Long busy day but the perks were great!! Barbados $15 1st class!! Rome ,Tahiti, Mexico City etc $125 for a wonderful week!!
We were spoiled!! Designer uniforms!! We worked w manners and respect! Not like today's general public. My girlfriend flew for a major carrier. They would call them in at 32yrs hand them an arm full of roses thanks for flying w us!! You were too old to fly!! But it all left me w wonderful memories!!

Stark contrast to today's................ . Cattle mentality *

The odds were you had a good chance of ending up in Cuba.

What a time to be alive and experience if you had the money

Flying used to be affordable for the middle class and up. Once the proletariat could afford flying standards readjusted to accommodate lower class tastes. Socialist DEI policies further erode flying, to a point of being precarious.

There was plenty of room then and now they put you in like sardines.

You did not have to take off your shoes, you had more room, no plastic bags for toiletries, etc.

I flew PAN AM and TWA overseas a lot when I was young. It was wonderful back then 1959 through 1972. Hawaiia, many times Okinawa Japan Munich Berlin Amsterdam and Australia. Nothing like today, no Karens at all.

now flying is nightmare, is painful and TSA will ripp your privacy. We travel more, we pay so much and we receice less and less every year!!! WTF ???!!!!! Airlines and CEO's they are so greedy !!!!!! I hate traveling these days !!!!!!

I remember flying in the 1970's. It was really fun save the smoking! Today's flying simply sucks.

The 80s were still not horrible flying. I did a lot back and forth, Now I can't do anything but first. Way too many rude people to get stuck next to in regular, I would rather pay a little more and travel less then pay less and travel more.

How traveling used to be. My only reason to comment here is to laugh out loud showing all the fine aeroplane from the past. People watching this can look deep into the past travel on the railroads. which were destroyed by this BS creadted by Americas airlines What will one industry do to destroy another.

Well, flying was something reserved for the rich back then, so the volume of people flying was relatively low,. Accordingly it was seen as an exclusive way of transportation with flight prices high enough to offer a top service and good food. Today it became the opposite in every regard, except it's still the fastest and most secure way of transportation measured by distance of travel.

Great video thanks for sharing

I flew Air Icelandic in 1968 and they had seats that reversed and a table that folded down and four people ate together from dinnerware. And they were a budget airline (and I was a backpacker). The stopover in Reykjavik was fun and a four engine turboprop flies a lot lower.

I stayed flying in the mid 70s then they treated you like you were some body, stewardess would go around giving out magazines, playing cards and the meals were quite good. Now the last domestic flight I took was like traveling on a bus, no meals but you got all the peanuts and cookies you can eat, and the drinks they only give you a small cup of the non alcoholic drink.

NO DEI ANYWHERE HOW WONDERFUL AND SAFE…… LOVELY PEOPLE DRESSED LIKE THEY CARED BOTH PASSENGERS AND THOSE WORKING SO REFRESHING.

Now it's just a bus in the sky.

They should keep people from boarding a plane for dress code violations. No pajamas, nothing too revealing, no open tied shoes, no shorts. No one should be too comfortable.

It’s great fun to look back at what some (quite honestly) enjoyed. I didn’t fly until the late 70’s. But even then it was an entirely different experience from today. I flew a lot for my profession, nationally & internationally. 9/11 & cheap flights changed everything. The airlines have become the Greyhounds of the air - only more obnoxious, complicated, & dangerous. One of great joys of retiring was knowing I’d never have to get on another plane.

I just wonder how they got up into those beds. Looks a bit awkward.

I avoid any airlines in the usa, pure 3rd world shit, I also avoid Boeing craft as unsafe.

GREAT VIDEO. All my life I wanted to be an airline pilot, soloed at age 16, PVT 17 yrs, then ran our of monely lol ..... went into the Army and 10 yrs of Law Enforcement slowly building time and then ratings: Instructor ....... then age 33 got my first airline job in 1988. My first jet was the MD*80, smoking had been banned in te cabin but not in the cockpit (flight deck) so all the flight attenendents would come in the flight deck to smoke .... OMG i didn't smoke lol so wh;en they banned cockpit smoking I was all smiles lol. My first steak dinner on a plane was on that MD80, inflight. I retired in 1988 as an Airbus Captain with American Airlines ........ loved that 30 years .......... flying in the cabin sure has changed ......

How about the reverse seating on the DC3 ? Unbelievable how far this ounce great society has deteriorated. SMH 😢

I lived the flights of the seventies and eighties.
Such a differennce, even in economy class.

Revisionist nonsense, if you ever flew on these planes you would remember them for the engines being noisy as hell and the airframes would shake you to death.

How much time did this one ride take for them to be doing all this

I definitely remember dressing up and having full meals on a flight. It was enjoyable

For those commenting about weight, you do realize these are produced by commercial companies. They didn’t let fat actors in the show.

Shimmering Shepherdesses in GOSH DARN Sandals...WTH???

What the airline industry has become is an absolute disgrace. When I was a kid in the '60s and '70s, I used to fly with my mother to see her brothers and sisters in the south. And my grandfather, of course. Plus I belonged to a group that used to fly us around the country to do a little performing. People were polite and courteous, and respectful. Flying back then was just the coolest thing. I'm sure eventually it's going to come back to that. But, for whatever reason, we have to suffer through this period of...whatever the hell you want to call it.

The flight attendants say they're busy now. Yeah, try serving actual meals.

Nobody dresses for the theatre anymore either, Americans are a bunch of slobs now.

The cost of these tickets were probably equivalent to flying private now. Something only few can do now.

Quite impressive travel.

I was a travel agent back in 1975. We had to write out the tickets which were kept in a safe. No computers then, The OAG (Official Airline Guide) was printed about every two weeks so we could find the appropriate flights for our customers.

Stepford Wives. All the male passengers are wearing blue & all the female passengers are wearing pink. DisCrim ination ... No male cabin attendants allowed?

Now instead of eating cavier in the lap of luxury and service, you are packed in like sardines in a can and fed salmonella.

A lot of this was still present through the 80s. I remember the first plane trip I went on as a kid. They did a lot to make the experience comforting and welcoming.

Now it’s like riding a bus.

Who took it away ?

Nice video!
My mom was one of those glamorous "stewardesses" who flew for United in the 60s before I was born.
Back then, at least per my mom, stewardesses had to be unmarried---can you imagine!!!

Flying scares the crap out of me with all the recent crash stories in the news, seeing psycho people screaming at you while in the air, plane parts ripping off while flying and just the hassle of getting into the airport. Unless my life depended on it I will never fly anywhere. If I can’t drive there I don’t need to be there.

I first flew transatlantic in around 1986, I must've been 12 or so and it was to take snaps in Death Valley for an album cover. I don't remember much; I think I was allowed on deck to see the instruments, the flight attendant was legitimately shocked I didn't want ice in my coke, and the pilot asked everyone to not smoke quite as much multiple times.
Nice video and - not a negative thing - you could probably do a great impression of Kenny Everett.

No thanks. Who wants fine cutlery in an airplane? Smoking on a plane was the most idiotic thing ever done. Stupid