The Retro Blog

Flying today is pretty miserable. Rude passengers treat the cabin like their living room. You have to wait for two hours to get patted down by an unfriendly security guard. On a flight home from Japan I was randomly selected to get a thorough going over at the security gate. The guard was the tallest, manliest Japanese woman I’ve ever seen. My limited grasp of the language informs me that when she discovered my cookie stash in my bag she told me they were going to make me fat. I do not enjoy flying.

So what was flying like in the 60’s? This site has answers. There’s the obvious things - flight attendants wore skimpy skirts to please passengers who were predominately male business men. Other things are more interesting. Apparently it was not uncommon for airports to have a vending machine selling life insurance just in case the plane crashed. Comforting. Prices were regulated and expensive, so the only way for airlines to compete was to provide the best service. This included food and drinks on every flight (no matter how short), and the ability to smoke everywhere on the plane. Mmmmm recycled toxins. And the security? Nonexistent. 

Here’s a little tour from 1960 of the first 747: