My brother when he left the Navy, went to work for Pan American, at Idlewild Airport in NYC. Part of his Navy training was in Avionics and he work with others on this Airliner. He was with Pan Am until it's demise. He was two years short of retirment, but in all his time with Pan Am, he loved the StratoCruiser the best of all the aircraft that was in Pan Am's livery. This video/film reminds me of a simpler time in the USA. Thank you for showing it.
watchgoose It's now JFK Airport in Jamaica Queens New York City. If you listen to the song in the opening credits of the old television series "Car 54 Where Are You." It mentions Idlewild airport.
It is so nice to see your comments. Boeing Stratocruiser being a double decker in olden times is liked by all today. Though it was a failure and only 55 were made of which 11 were lost due to accidents it reminds people of good service, global travel in olden times done in style . Flying is commoditised today and cabin crew is insensitive like the passengers. Thanks for sharing your views on brother.
Nice video. This was the first airplane I ever flew on, when I was a kid. We were immigrating to the US and flew from Frankfurt, Germany to NYC in 1953. It was a long trip but I enjoyed every second of it. Watching them starting the engines, then when brought to full power prior to takeoff, it was visceral. I still have some seat pocket PAA memorabilia from that flight. And yeah, I recall everyone did dress like this back then.
@@henryostman5740 Lol, a lot of men wore suits to work in steel mills, and other dirty ,grime filled places, and changed into work clothes in locker rooms then. When I was a little boy in the early 70's, I remember seeing mostly guys older than my dad wearing suits with hats everywhere. All of the men wore suits and hats ,and most of the women wore skirts and scarfs. Seems like a thousand years ago now.
@@truthseeker2321 We have women wearing pantsuits, and “men” wearing skirts and scarves now. Every time I dress nice in a public outing, I get weird stares from all sorts of people. It seems as though dressing nice is not only less common than it once was, but I’d even go as far as to say it’s somewhat discouraged by many.
@I’m hungry I know what you mean. I don't wear suits myself, except for certain occasions, I usually just dress casual. I think it's not that it's discouraged, but rather out of style these days. I can't remember any of my classmates wearing anything to school in the 70's and early 80's, other than jeans, rock concert tee shirts and athletic shoes. Now I think kids go to school wearing baggy shorts or sweat pants, because sometimes on my way home from work I'll get stuck behind a school bus, and that seems to be the attire that they are wearing when they get off the bus.
I always loved flying and was fortunate to go through USAF pilot training in class 61-F. I flew the KC-97G model for 4 years on active duty at both Lockbourne AFB in Columbus Ohio and Pease AFB in Portsmouth NH. The airlines were hiring in May of 1965 and I started with UAL. 34 years later I retired as a 747-400 Captain. It's been a great ride and I'm still flying a Cessna 150 Texas taildragger now just for fun.
WOW!, you really have had a good life, I like the bit about the tail dragger, Ha Ha,good fun tho' a slight difference 'tween that and the 747-400 (Also a beautiful aircraft.)when I was in the Airforce, all the kites were tail draggers.
Great job! What was your favorite plane and destination at UAL? Have you seen the home movies from a UAL captain? He is flying the DC-6 just before it is retired in 1969/70. He also finished on the 747-400. Greetings from Norway!
My family and I actually flew in the plane in the video, the Clipper Golden Gate. In 1958, it crash landed in Manila and crushed the downstairs lounge as we landed with no landing gear in a violent storm.
@@mommymilestones They probably commented as it’s an unusual name and maybe haven’t heard of anyone else being called it until now. Their comment was an innocent observation. Not an invite for you to be a rude ass for no reason. Next time keep out of what doesn’t involve you.
Sad to say, "Clipper Golden Gate," seen in the early sequences of the film crashed upon landing in Manila on June 2, 1958. My family lived in Manila at the time, and the house was not too far from the airport. We heard the plane fly over, and at lunch, heard that the plane had crashed moments after the fly-over. The weather was grim that morning, with heavy rain and heavy winds, and while the main cause of the crash was the landing gear collapsing, the weather was also found to be a factor. That sais, oh, boy: did I love those Stratocruisers! Yes, they had berths; yes, they had sleeper seats; yes, it had the lower lounge (there was kind of an unspoken understanding that children were allowed down there in the daytime, but come cocktail time, Adults Only); and yes, you had the full meals (yum!); yes, the cabin crew had time to be more than flying hash-house waiters/waitresses; and yes, each child aboard was invited up the tour the cockpit. (Heavy sigh.) Those sure were the days!
@@duanetrivett750 Hello, Duane. And thanks for your kind words about my personal little anecdote regarding Pan American's "Clipper Golden Gate" Stratocruiser. Somewhere here on RUclips, there is - or was - another documentary on Pan Am and the Stratocruiser; one viewer wrote in and said he was passenger on the plane when it crashed. After a refueling stop in Manila, the flight was to have continued on to Singapore. Fortunately, as the crash was of the "belly landing" variety , there was only one casualty. As for the Stratocruiser itself, while it was a wonderfully comfortable plane from the passenger's point of view, apparently it wasn't very economical and it had a disturbingly high number of crashes or technical glitches. And as for Pan Am? Sad, sad, sad; if you're at all interested, there are a couple of excellent documentaries here on RUclips profiling it its history --- including its demise.
@@johnhayhurst7429 Hi, John: As I understand it, they were new planes based on the technology developed during the designing and building of the B-29s. Doing a quick Google search, only 56 were built (very comfortable to ride, but not particularly economical to fly).
The safety record of the 377 was appalling. Propellor failures caused several fatal crashes and at least one non-fatal ditching in the Pacific. I had a friend many years ago who flew as a stewardess on 377s for PAA. Her best friend was among the crew of Clipper Romance Of The Skies which vanished over the Pacific Ocean.
@@michaelmartinez1345 several bodies were recovered, but there is no definite answer as to what caused the fatal crash. The plane was flying from SFO to Hawaii on the first leg of a round the world flight. Google the PAA name of the plane and you’ll find links to the story.
I'm just glad I went on a Pan Am flight just in time before they went belly up (bankrupt). I flew onboard a Pan Am Boeing 727-200 from Tampa to Miami, I think in 1990 or 1991.
@@bobby1970 My only flight on Pan Am,was from JFK to Frankfurt Germany in 1982. Two years later, I came back on a MAC flight, from Frankfurt to St. Louis. I think the Pan Am aircraft I took to Frankfurt, might have been the same one that exploded over Lockerbie Scotland in 1988.
@@truthseeker2321 Wow, that's very eerie that you very well could have been on that plane on your trip to Germany. At least you weren't on that very plane and flight on the day it crashed.
As an aviation geek, this video was amazing to watch. Simply amazing how far we have come since the 1940's with aircraft. I love how they used to make these movie style clips to showcase aircraft, its a real shame they don't do it anymore. Thanks so much for uploading this classic.
Sadly, I missed the Stratoliner. I came in with the DC-7 and 7c. It's the reason why flying bores me so much I hate it. Dirty people dressed like they were going to wash cars...pushing and shoving like it was free seating....taking their shoes off...arguing with flight personnel....and on my first flight I had a steak dinner served to me on airline china by a fully uniformed stewardess in heels. The passengers were all dressed; I was wearing a suit and I was only 15 years old. Breaks my heart to see those mini bags of peanuts and other garbage available now, much less those overpriced boxes of junk food you can buy for $20. We called it "The Romance of Flight". Now it's more like a Greyhound bus with wings.
I just noticed your comment about airline travel today and you hit it on the head. I grew up around aviation and my dad was a frequent business flyer. For him and most all men, flying meant suit and tie, fedora hat and for the ladies it was a beautiful gown. To me, it is one symptom of all the other things we've lost today.
Amazing. The planes that connected the world for the fist time. While expensive, travel was a sign of class and achievement. Thank you to the men and women who made us what we are today.
Boeing Stratocruiser N1023V featured towards the beginning of this wonderful time capsule film...damaged beyond repair in landing accident (single passenger fatality when broken prop struck cabin, otherwise all aboard survived) in Manila, 1958.
In 1957 my dad and I flew in this plane from Sydney to Los Angeles with Pan American. In 1958 we flew the same route in the Lockheed Constellation with Qantas. The Connie was quieter and faster. But you can see the dna for the B29.
the Connie was the best of the piston engine airliners, it was offered with turboprops but no airline wanted that option, too bad, that would allow it to go faster and higher and be a lot more reliable.
Cindy, you are absolutely correct, Pan Am and TWA were the last of the passenger oriented airlines, what we have these days are money grubbing, profit making machines who, unfortunately have to make their money by carrying passengers, Ugh, treated worse than cattle, packed in like sardines in a can, with crews who are worked harder than ever, the target today is the bottom line period! I yearn for the old days, alas, gone forever.
In 1955 a 'tourist class' ticket to from San Francisco to Honolulu cost the equivalent of $2593 in 2016 dollars. If you want to pay that much you can still get fantastic service from almost any airline. Don't be surprised if the luxuries go away a bit when the ticket price drops 90%. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_377_Stratocruiser
A transportation company tried to restore Pan Am as a regional carrier back in the early 2000's. The parent company, Pan Am Railways, which is a freight company based in Massachusetts, set up headquarters at Pease International Airport in Portsmouth, NH. When you treat passengers like cargo freight, things don't go well. And it didn't. The general public was thrilled to have a carrier closer than Boston or Manchester, NH. Pan Am had a great opportunity to capture a large segment of Seacoast NH and Southern Maine. Sadly, inept management and lack of focus on passengers brought an end to Pan Am's rebirth.
PAA v.2.0 briefly provided daily service to "Gary/Chicago International Airport KGYY" (what a pretentious name!). A large part of their eventual demise was that they (similar to Amtrak) provided mostly destinations that were at best smaller and less desirable towns (not really cities). How many people do you suppose were actually interested in travelling from Gary, IN to Sarasota, FL?
Look at the width of those seats, those were the days, my friend, and edible food too. Ah yes, one could still get something for a buck, like a pack of cigs. and get enough change back for a cup of coffee, or two!
You are right about the seat widths and don't forget that you could set your seat way back, have a good snooze, you can't do that today or the guy behind you will likely bash you over the head with his Laptop, another notable item was the fact that people were NOT so fat and horrible days gone by, look at many of todays animals. A recent rip to Vietnam I witnessed several 'Ladies' and many men who had to ask for belt extensions as the standard belt width doesn't serve a 55" inch waist line OMG, how times have changed. I have heard people describing the 'economy seats as 'Cattle Class' then looking at the size, and often the smell of these 'people' make me yearn for good old days when people acted in a civilised manner.
I remember being a little kid in the late 70's and flying Delta unescorted with my sister - ages five and eight! We always got a tour of the cockpit along with meeting the captain and crew and we ALWAYS dressed up for flights in our best clothing. We also always got a deck of cards to keep us busy and little plastic planes wit wings so sharp, an X-Acto would be jealous!
l know what you mean about wearing your "Sunday best" l live in Vegas where people use to get dressed up to the nines for a night on the strip, now it's T-shirts, shorts a flip-flops. l guess "self pride" along with common sense has gone by the wayside. Very, very sad. Hell even when l was a kid my parents would go out on Friday night for dinner and get dressed up. WTF has happened to us?
I remember buying and smoking cigarettes in the cabin in my teens. Nobody batted an eye. I think if they could charge you for breathing now, they would. It's simply not worth it anymore.
I missed this era, but I still remember propeller planes and stops in the Azores for refueling. The 1970s was a great time with almost empty planes, 747 lounges, parties on board. Lot's of fun.
At 10:32 on this video, we hear the voice of John Charles Daly, the moderator of the popular TV game show "What's My Line". Daly was also a news announcer, and he was the first radio reporter to announce to America that the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941.
2:24 Gee, nice to see safety was a top priority. "Frank and Bob, just jump on that pallet so I can lift you up on the forklift to load the food supplies ... just don't step too far to the left or right".
The model shown @8:14 and described as a "Fokker F7" is in fact a Ford 4-AT "Trimotor". The Fokker's wing was raised slightly above the fuselage and its leading edge was even with the cockpit windscreen; not flush with the top with a set-back leading edge like the Ford's. The Fokker also didn't have windows above the cockpit because of the wing's placement. The angular rudder of the Ford is another easy identification feature. That's the first thing that caught my eye. The Fokker's is rounded.
I think there's only been two double-decked airliners since: The Boeing 747 (with a small upper cabin above the first-class and crew compartments) and the Airbus 380.
This airplane was born when I was born--a couple of years after the end of WWII, when American parents were giving birth to millions of us 'baby boomer' kids, and were helping to rebuild the whole world into something livable again. I see now that we boomers lived in probably the best period ever to be an America--all as a gift from the 'Greatest Generation' who paid dearly to give their kids the luxury of a life they never had. But all you new generations won't see that in these old b&w movies, and despite the stress of the Cold War that came along a short time later and lasted into our middle-age, won't know how living in that era was total joy compared to the crappy world YOU (I'll be leaving soon) live in now. You may love all the 'toys' you have now that we didn't, but you'll never experience the happiness my generation did. It's ALL gone now, and I don't see how in our current social climate it can possibly return. As they say, 'it was a good gig while it lasted'.
Had the chance to see one of these aircraft in 1975 taxi and take off while stationed at Barksdale AFB. It was being used as an air refueling tanker by the Oklahoma National Guard. I think it's designation was KC-97. The one I saw was probably the last of the breed. Impressive aircraft.
When flying had elegance . Lady’s gents dressed up with manners and a smile . Today trailer trash fights , arrested woman men fighting with each over and the flight crew where did we go wrong folks
In 1950, a round trip ticket from Chicago to Phoenix cost $138, in todays dollars that would be $1168. Today, it's $215-$390. Flying First Class today would cost $583-$937. Economy seat is 17.2" wide with 31" pitch. First Class is 21" wide with a pitch of 38". In other words, you can have more leg room and comfort by paying for First class today and it would be relatively cheaper than coach of 1950.
And if you actually get there, that's all of the fun (they had a terrible Hull loss percentage, and cruising at less than 20.000 ft couldn't have been 'fun' in bad weather)
The early intercontinental passenger planes were four-engine propeller designs. For their time they were technological marvels. A one-way trip from Honolulu to Japan in the late 1950s took only 18 hours whereas it took two weeks by passenger ship. Of course, back then American airliners had to make quick refueling stops at Wake Island or Guam. My elderly mother remembers being a passenger on such a flight. The technological marvel of only 18 hours on board was lost on her. It was torture. When she finally arrived in Japan, she was ready to kiss the ground. Today's jet airliners fly at speeds from 500 mph to 540 mph. Back then the prop jobs might cruise at best around 175 mph and that was considered fast cruising speed for propeller engines. It helped that the passenger plane was flying nearly in a straight line; nearly, because the plane had to slightly divert to a refueling station along the way, as mentioned, in Wake Island or Guam en route to the Far East. Post-WW2, the U.S. military maintained a number of military outposts in South Korea and Japan. My father was not so lucky. He had to take a two-week ship voyage out of San Francisco to Yokohama, Japan.
That is an unusual Engine starting pattern. With multi engine aircraft it usually one engine on one side and then another on the opposite side, not all on one side and then the ones on the opposite side.
Oh, my. Oh, my. Today's first class must be a diminution of this luxury. Not that I would know. But. even before the creature comforts at the end of the video, didn't the presentation of the plane make us want to go along?
Amazing film, showing the luxury experience for wealthy passengers probably a bit like today when travelling first class, the Stratocruiser certainly a forerunner of the A380 flown by some carriers.
The other narrator at 10:40 is JOHN DALY, who was a correspondent for CBS Radio at the time- and later became best known as the moderator of "WHAT'S MY LINE?" for 17 years (1950-'67).
I loved this video for its historic value. It's an example of how the aircraft industry was trying to gain some value from all of the taxpayer's money that was invested in the development of large bomber and cargo aircraft and how what was learned and spent could be applied to the post war airline industry. Sometimes this idea works and as with the Boeing 377, it didn't. The radial engines in the B-29s were problematic from the beginning and issues continued with these complicated power plants as more and more demand was required from them. These engines created a maintenance nightmare that was costly and huge in relation to maintaining perpetual parts inventories around the world and the labor costs associated with them. (Having computers and the internet sure would have been handy.) Educating maintenance crews for these aircraft must have been a nerve wracking and costly task, considering the language barriers that existed in addition to the demands of flight schedules and the availability of safe and airworthy aircraft. The airline industry would have met its demise if it wasn't for some forward thinking and hard work on the part of Boeing with its jet engine power of the swept wing 707. The British were the first to incorporate jets into revenue service with the DeHavilland Comet, but they had their issues with deadly crashes due to air frame integrity failure and maintenance down time on the engines was high because of their engine's placement. The engines were incorporated into the wings for streamlining purposes. Regard for the maintenance crews gaining access was an afterthought. Boeing designers and engineers learned a lot from the jet bombers that were placed into operation at a rather fast pace because of the Cold War. The B-47 and B-52 both had their engines placed in pods that were hung beneath the wings. Engine access was simple and this excellent idea was quickly put to use with the 707. Other aircraft manufacturers also picked up on this great idea such as Douglas with their DC-8 and Convair with their numerous different models of civilian aircraft. In my opinion, the Boeing 707 saved the American airline industry with their innovation and ease of maintaining their new 707. Word spread like wildfire when a 707 was seen by thousands at an outdoor event as a 707 was witnessed doing a barrel roll maneuver on one of it's first test flights. The civilian jet age was born and the tangled web associated with keeping piston powered aircraft in the air became history in a very short time.
But MAN OH MAN, the Comet was a stunning looking aircraft. Of course the 3 and 4 variants solved most of the Comets issues, and the Nimrod variant proved itself in the long term, but the 707 was the future. Modern airliners still look much the same.
@@wintersbattleofbands1144 I fell asleep watching an old movie the other night, which featured a British Comet coming in for a landing. I remember thinking about those big windows, and how they had a tendency to blow out. Such a shame, for such a beautiful design.
@@truthseeker2321 They didn't have a tendency to blow out, and the cause for fatigue cracking has been oversimplified to "square windows" at many sources - including usually reputable ones. See the "Square window myths" section of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Comet
Boeing and others also all got the benefits of learning from the Comet. It seems likely that if any other company had released an equivalent(& likewise first) commercial plane at that time would've had major issues. The 707 was also introduced 6 years later, which was a long time in that era of aircraft advancement. Even the B-47 was only released around the same time as the comet - plenty of those crashed, along with some never found nuclear weapons.
Back when smoking on a flight was normal and each seat came with a stiff drink...for obvious reasons. It's amazing how safe these were, all things considered.
Now you tell me.Was The USA an amazing place back then or what?Horrible what has happened to this country,absolutely horrible.That plane is classic made in the USA with pride.
1000% I'm old enough to remember the thrill of boarding a 707 or 727. We looked at the crews like they were movie stars. Every single step in the process of flying was a moment to remember. Actual metal silverware, glass glasses, real food, smiles.
I took my first commercial flight over fifty years ago, it was fun and comfortable with great meals. I can honestly say I despise air travel now. Interestingly, both my best and worst fights were aboard military aircraft. Worst flight was from Abbotsford, B.C. Canada to Gulfport Mississippi sitting on nylon webbing seats in the back of a C130. Noisy, uncomfortable, and no food other than an IMP (Individual Meal Packet) with no way to heat the main course. Best flights were to and from the Golan Heights in Israel from CFB Trenton in Ontario aboard an RCAF CC-150 Polaris (Airbus A310). The aircraft was only 1/3 full and we could have as many meals as we wanted. We could raise the arm rests and lay down full length across the middle rows of seats. Now, we only fly if it's too far to drive or we're going overseas.
The Stratocruiser was developed from the B-29 and shared almost all of the airframe with the great bomber. I think Boeing installed more powerful engines on the Stratocruiser whhen they became available. Not that it was a lousy passenger airplane, the Stratocruiser, along with the DC-6 and -7 and the Lockheed Constellation were all made obsolete within a decade by the jets.
@ Harold VanSlyck: You are right about the engines. The B-29 had Wright Cyclone turbo-compound 18-cylinder radials (also used by the DC-6 and -7 and the Constellations) ; the Stratocruiser used the more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major 28 cylinder turbo-compound engines used on the B-50.
The Wright Cyclones were extremely complex and I recall the engines of the earlier Connie's were W Cyclones, from what I am told by my Aero Engineering Buddies, they were complex and difficult to work on,bear in mind, they were to be the last of piston engines when the simpler jets out sold them. Civil aircraft have been as changeable as military types, FASHION, Speed, Costs per Statute Miles 'v' Seat Prices were soon to become 'supersonic,' nowadays, it's the bottom line which drives Airlines where previouslylate forties to around early 60's, Airlines focussed on Passengers, how things have changed.
Notice how the upper passenger part of the 8 has only 2 seats on either side of the asile in todays corp. mindset it would be enlarged "Streched" to 5 +5 and no leg room but PAA back in the day on this long legged relatively slow ( by B-707 standards) plane charged much more stuffed you w/ food and drink and did not overcrowd.
Pan Am Clipper outbound from San Francisco, passing over the Golden Gate Bridge. Next stop, Honolulu International Airport, Territory of Hawaii. Final stop, Tokyo, Japan.
Has nobody else noticed Robert Downey's dad looks just like his son? He seems to like getting high too but this for him means actually flying high in the sky. What a fascinating family. @7.24
taketimeout2 Kind of along the same line, Alan Hale Sr. was a big time actor in the silent movie era, the only one I remember is Robin Hood. His son, Alan Hale, Jr. was most famous as the Skipper on Gilligan's Island.
03:15 - *"...spaciousness designed for more than just elbowroom..."* They forgot all about that. In modern airliners we don't even have much elbowroom. "More than just elbowroom" is science fiction nowadays, unless you fly in business class.
I'm pretty sure the plane pictured was the first 377 in commercial service (the "Clipper Golden Gate"), and the first air route was San Francisco to Honolulu.
Pay the same as you did in the 50s and you'll probably be much *more* comfortable now. Modern aircraft aren't cramped, cheap seats are. There were no cheap seats then(even for "coach"), and likewise most people couldn't afford to fly. I think sometimes the leg room was also at least partly due to the weak lift of some aircraft. People today would also still be cramped in many seats from the 50s & 60s, as there were already seats that were narrow(even if with more leg room) and many people today are...let's say less small. La Compagnie also offer a business class only plane between NY & Paris, it's almost certainly nicer overall & still cheaper than a flight(for any class) would've been in the 50s.
It’s amazing that the blueprints and many of the ensuing tests could be done on a laptop today using virtual reality. This is one of the reasons technology is advancing at a blinding rate today.
Aircraft aren't advancing at a blinding rate, they were changing much faster at the time this film was made than now. Changes on modern aircraft have been incremental for decades, and the *average* age of modern commercial jets is routinely nearly 25 years old. A 25 year old aircraft up until about the 1980s would've been wildly outdated. Likewise computing power increases are much slower than they were in the 80s and 90s, miniaturisation has perhaps been the biggest change in recent years. Heck technology such as usable/affordable holograms were expected by people in the 1990s to have been common well before now. People seem to assume all technology is changing faster now just because it's common in daily usage. Planes are still thoroughly tested in real flights, likewise deep knowledge, foresight, etc also have value beyond computer simulations/tools - as Boeing has unfortunately repeatedly shown with recent aircraft & manufacturing. I can't see VR helping testing much. Computers are just tools, they don't make anything. It's not amazing that anything could be made without a computer, and likewise being able to use a computer(which itself of course relies on designs & coding by knowledgable people) doesn't automatically make everything possible.
Thank you for your video AND comments below -- very interesting -- those were the "good old days" in many ways, and we wish we could return to much of them!
Yeah? What about the modern world would you be willing to give up to go back then? Modern medicine? Computers? More than three TV channels? Color TV? The interstate highway system? The ability to fly quickly and safely almost anywhere in the country for a fairly low price? It was different then, but it wasn't really better.
In the late 60s and early 70s, when the clippers and the KC-97s were still flying, a train with 14,000 HP could pull a 33,000 ton (66,000,000 lbs) train on flat ground. It can also pull a 14,000 ton ( 28,000,000 Lbs) train at 50 MPH on flat ground.
A one-way flight New York to Paris in 1955 cost $2,700 in today's dollars. You pay that kind of money, you get that kind of luxury. You got that kind of money? Then kudos to you. Some people would rather pay half that for a round trip, skip the white gloves and champagne and get there safer in a quieter, less polluting aircraft and in a fraction of the time, thanks.
Yep! New York to Paris, France: $310 in 1955, $2,622 adjusted for inflationNew York to Rome, Italy: $360.20 in 1955, $3,046 adjusted for inflationPittsburgh to San Francisco: $96 in 1955, $812 adjusted for inflationSan Francisco to Chicago: $76 in 1955, $643 adjusted for inflationPhoenix to Chicago: $69 in 1955, $584 adjusted for inflation gadling.com/2013/07/30/air-travel-relatively-cheap/
Back then men and women had some backbone to them . They called for respect ,duty and will also give it . Today people are lazy no backbone or care . This is why we are in the shape we are in . We are what our government is today as it was back then . Folk dont whine or cry . Dont blame someone else or there party . Blame your self .
It was only up until around 30 years ago, the airlines would actually feed you. Some of the better meals I've ever had were up in the air. They still do it on many international flights.
Absolutely correct, thirty years ago airline pax were considered as human beings, these days we are no more than 'Walk on baggage', (Overheard British Airways Cabin Staff London to Singapore), if you want 'yesteryears' treatment where pax are treated as humans, you'd have to fly Cathay Pacific, Qantas, or Air New Zealand, great Cabin Staff and great food in both classes.
I don't fly today...no comfort, too crowded, small seats, lousy food, indifferent stewards, questionable maintenance procedures. Money is put before safety. There have been many accidents that were directly linked to saving money over safety.
Fly Qantas. Best safety procedures in the world and their flight attendants are well paid. If you've got the money to fly business class they'll treat you like a king.
No comfort, too crowded, small seats, lousy food...Change it. Fly First Class. First Class today is relatively cheaper than coach was in the '50's...Questionable maintenance procedures, money before safety... Obviously you have no clue of the accident rates of aircraft in the '50's. In 1952, Midway airport in Chicago had 5 million passengers. O'Hare wasn't opened for commercial traffic until 1955. Today Midway does 18 million people and O'Hare does 78 million. 5 million people at one airport to 96 million at two. In 1948, Atlanta had just over 1 million passengers. Today 104 million.
The AF ANG had some in Frankfurt ,Rhine Main AFB in1976. These were tankers and had jets on the wings, I think j-65's that burned the av-gas of the radials.
check it out, back then you can go to an airport and see airplanes (reference people on the open tarmac watching the 377 depart). Is that Alec Baldwin as Juan Trippe at 10:51?
I love the commentary. It is so typical of its time trying to impress the old folks. "The co-pilot gets the signal BY RADIO" Good God!! Really! Ah, those were the days of luxury air travel with the alternative choice of fabulous passenger liners. Now it's crap all the way.
Except aircrafts of that era had a regrettable tendency to crash - and it was quite a headache for investigators to find why since there was no black boxes until the mid-60s. To my knowledge, Australia was the first country to make those devices mandatory for all commercial passenger aircrafts. Basically the black boxes came with the jets.
You make it sound as if flying was too dangerous in those days. Yes, there were more crashes then but statistics show it to be much safer than a car. The "Strat" was actually one of the least safe because the engines tended to catch fire - not good!! Safety aside, air travel then was fab.
Julosx, Your are correct there, A The so called Black Box was designed by an Australian, however, it took almost ten years to have it adopted by airlines, when, after high numbers of crashes, the airlines had to accept it, another safety feature were the "STROBE' lights on aircarft, I believe they were an American Pilot's idea, a damned good one too.
The Stratocruiser was the Jumbo of its day, but a maintenance nightmare. Cost per mile was more than double that of a DC-6. Tell you what, though, that tall, dark stewardess was a stunning woman!
![Jack Harlow - Hello Miss Johnson [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q86_nlRoIGw/mqdefault.jpg)
My brother when he left the Navy, went to work for Pan American, at Idlewild Airport in NYC. Part of his Navy training was in Avionics and he work with others on this Airliner. He was with Pan Am until it's demise. He was two years short of retirment, but in all his time with Pan Am, he loved the StratoCruiser the best of all the aircraft that was in Pan Am's livery. This video/film reminds me of a simpler time in the USA. Thank you for showing it.
Idlewild!!!
watchgoose It's now JFK Airport in Jamaica Queens New York City. If you listen to the song in the opening credits of the old television series "Car 54 Where Are You." It mentions Idlewild airport.
nice to see people talking good thing about his brother in hate times.
It is so nice to see your comments. Boeing Stratocruiser being a double decker in olden times is liked by all today. Though it was a failure and only 55 were made of which 11 were lost due to accidents it reminds people of good service, global travel in olden times done in style . Flying is commoditised today and cabin crew is insensitive like the passengers. Thanks for sharing your views on brother.
Gu hi
Nice video. This was the first airplane I ever flew on, when I was a kid. We were immigrating to the US and flew from Frankfurt, Germany to NYC in 1953. It was a long trip but I enjoyed every second of it. Watching them starting the engines, then when brought to full power prior to takeoff, it was visceral. I still have some seat pocket PAA memorabilia from that flight.
And yeah, I recall everyone did dress like this back then.
back in those days my father and his friends would wear a suit to a picnic or going to the beach.
@@henryostman5740 Lol, a lot of men wore suits to work in steel mills, and other dirty ,grime filled places, and changed into work clothes in locker rooms then.
When I was a little boy in the early 70's, I remember seeing mostly guys older than my dad wearing suits with hats everywhere. All of the men wore suits and hats ,and most of the women wore skirts and scarfs. Seems like a thousand years ago now.
@@truthseeker2321 We have women wearing pantsuits, and “men” wearing skirts and scarves now. Every time I dress nice in a public outing, I get weird stares from all sorts of people. It seems as though dressing nice is not only less common than it once was, but I’d even go as far as to say it’s somewhat discouraged by many.
@I’m hungry I know what you mean.
I don't wear suits myself, except for certain occasions, I usually just dress casual. I think it's not that it's discouraged, but rather out of style these days. I can't remember any of my classmates wearing anything to school in the 70's and early 80's, other than jeans, rock concert tee shirts and athletic shoes. Now I think kids go to school wearing baggy shorts or sweat pants, because sometimes on my way home from work I'll get stuck behind a school bus, and that seems to be the attire that they are wearing when they get off the bus.
Amazing. Do you have pictures of the memorabilia you could send or post? That would be amazing!
I always loved flying and was fortunate to go through USAF pilot training in class 61-F. I flew the KC-97G model for 4 years on active duty at both Lockbourne AFB in Columbus Ohio and Pease AFB in Portsmouth NH. The airlines were hiring in May of 1965 and I started with UAL. 34 years later I retired as a 747-400 Captain. It's been a great ride and I'm still flying a Cessna 150 Texas taildragger now just for fun.
Thanks for your service to our great nation.
WOW!, you really have had a good life, I like the bit about the tail dragger, Ha Ha,good fun tho' a slight difference 'tween that and the 747-400 (Also a beautiful aircraft.)when I was in the Airforce, all the kites were tail draggers.
I remember as a 12 year old boy, cycling 20 miles to see the Stratocruser of BOAC at London Heathrow.
I remember it from the control tower at Gander, Newfoundland: and lawdy what a long time ago that was!
Great job! What was your favorite plane and destination at UAL? Have you seen the home movies from a UAL captain? He is flying the DC-6 just before it is retired in 1969/70. He also finished on the 747-400. Greetings from Norway!
My family and I actually flew in the plane in the video, the Clipper Golden Gate. In 1958, it crash landed in Manila and crushed the downstairs lounge as we landed with no landing gear in a violent storm.
My Dads name is Lonnie too💜
We know. We were all on that plane that fateful day.
@@JetFire9 I forgot to lock the wheel. I was -11 years old, I should have known better
@@mommymilestones They probably commented as it’s an unusual name and maybe haven’t heard of anyone else being called it until now. Their comment was an innocent observation. Not an invite for you to be a rude ass for no reason. Next time keep out of what doesn’t involve you.
Did the plane get put out of service after that?
Sad to say, "Clipper Golden Gate," seen in the early sequences of the film crashed upon landing in Manila on June 2, 1958. My family lived in Manila at the time, and the house was not too far from the airport. We heard the plane fly over, and at lunch, heard that the plane had crashed moments after the fly-over. The weather was grim that morning, with heavy rain and heavy winds, and while the main cause of the crash was the landing gear collapsing, the weather was also found to be a factor. That sais, oh, boy: did I love those Stratocruisers! Yes, they had berths; yes, they had sleeper seats; yes, it had the lower lounge (there was kind of an unspoken understanding that children were allowed down there in the daytime, but come cocktail time, Adults Only); and yes, you had the full meals (yum!); yes, the cabin crew had time to be more than flying hash-house waiters/waitresses; and yes, each child aboard was invited up the tour the cockpit. (Heavy sigh.) Those sure were the days!
Thank you Willy Boy , i very much enjoyed your story ! Thank you much Sir .
@@duanetrivett750 Hello, Duane. And thanks for your kind words about my personal little anecdote regarding Pan American's "Clipper Golden Gate" Stratocruiser. Somewhere here on RUclips, there is - or was - another documentary on Pan Am and the Stratocruiser; one viewer wrote in and said he was passenger on the plane when it crashed. After a refueling stop in Manila, the flight was to have continued on to Singapore. Fortunately, as the crash was of the "belly landing" variety , there was only one casualty. As for the Stratocruiser itself, while it was a wonderfully comfortable plane from the passenger's point of view, apparently it wasn't very economical and it had a disturbingly high number of crashes or technical glitches. And as for Pan Am? Sad, sad, sad; if you're at all interested, there are a couple of excellent documentaries here on RUclips profiling it its history --- including its demise.
They were the equivalent of the B747s of the 70s.
Were these aircraft modified B-29's, or were they just based on the technology gained in the bomber's development?
@@johnhayhurst7429 Hi, John: As I understand it, they were new planes based on the technology developed during the designing and building of the B-29s. Doing a quick Google search, only 56 were built (very comfortable to ride, but not particularly economical to fly).
The safety record of the 377 was appalling. Propellor failures caused several fatal crashes and at least one non-fatal ditching in the Pacific. I had a friend many years ago who flew as a stewardess on 377s for PAA. Her best friend was among the crew of Clipper Romance Of The Skies which vanished over the Pacific Ocean.
Was that plane ever found? What Airline / flight # was it? What year did that happen?
@@michaelmartinez1345 several bodies were recovered, but there is no definite answer as to what caused the fatal crash. The plane was flying from SFO to Hawaii on the first leg of a round the world flight. Google the PAA name of the plane and you’ll find links to the story.
Short-lived Romance
24:44
You couldn't have paid me to fly on one ,Not a chance !
Well that's it! This video has convinced me! I'm booking my next flight with Pan Am so I can fly on one of these new Stratocruisers!😆
My guide to the world's fair says they are the official airline!
I'm just glad I went on a Pan Am flight just in time before they went belly up (bankrupt). I flew onboard a Pan Am Boeing 727-200 from Tampa to Miami, I think in 1990 or 1991.
Make sure you pay attention to the 'No Smoking' sign.
@@bobby1970 My only flight on Pan Am,was from JFK to Frankfurt Germany in 1982.
Two years later, I came back on a MAC flight, from Frankfurt to St. Louis.
I think the Pan Am aircraft I took to Frankfurt, might have been the same one that exploded over Lockerbie Scotland in 1988.
@@truthseeker2321 Wow, that's very eerie that you very well could have been on that plane on your trip to Germany. At least you weren't on that very plane and flight on the day it crashed.
As an aviation geek, this video was amazing to watch. Simply amazing how far we have come since the 1940's with aircraft. I love how they used to make these movie style clips to showcase aircraft, its a real shame they don't do it anymore. Thanks so much for uploading this classic.
Not just that either, also with stuff from the civil defense and other federal departments.
Boeing Field Seattle bud. As a pilot i'm enthralled at the sight of the 1st 747, Prez Kennedy's plane and many many more
We are talking about the COMMENTARY, not where the aircraft was built...
Before TV, audiences saw these "ads" at the movie theater.
I think they did one for the Boeing 737 Max, demonstrating its power and lift capabilities. What a dud that plane turned out to be.
Sadly, I missed the Stratoliner. I came in with the DC-7 and 7c. It's the reason why flying bores me so much I hate it. Dirty people dressed like they were going to wash cars...pushing and shoving like it was free seating....taking their shoes off...arguing with flight personnel....and on my first flight I had a steak dinner served to me on airline china by a fully uniformed stewardess in heels. The passengers were all dressed; I was wearing a suit and I was only 15 years old. Breaks my heart to see those mini bags of peanuts and other garbage available now, much less those overpriced boxes of junk food you can buy for $20. We called it "The Romance of Flight". Now it's more like a Greyhound bus with wings.
I just noticed your comment about airline travel today and you hit it on the head. I grew up around aviation and my dad was a frequent business flyer. For him and most all men, flying meant suit and tie, fedora hat and for the ladies it was a beautiful gown. To me, it is one symptom of all the other things we've lost today.
But so much safer now. Those clippers had quite a hull-loss ratio
Amazing. The planes that connected the world for the fist time. While expensive, travel was a sign of class and achievement. Thank you to the men and women who made us what we are today.
Boeing Stratocruiser N1023V featured towards the beginning of this wonderful time capsule film...damaged beyond repair in landing accident (single passenger fatality when broken prop struck cabin, otherwise all aboard survived) in Manila, 1958.
Yep
In 1957 my dad and I flew in this plane from Sydney to Los Angeles with Pan American. In 1958 we flew the same route in the Lockheed Constellation with Qantas. The Connie was quieter and faster. But you can see the dna for the B29.
you're old :)
Old is good....
In some ways anyway....
the Connie was the best of the piston engine airliners, it was offered with turboprops but no airline wanted that option, too bad, that would allow it to go faster and higher and be a lot more reliable.
@@leonardchapman8373 Still breathing and having a pulse is even better! :)
This was when passengers were treated like human beings, not cattle.
Armafly The demise of Pan Am meant the end of good treatment on planes.TWA dying was the nail in the coffin
way better that united Airlines and their hunger games
Cindy, you are absolutely correct, Pan Am and TWA were the last of the passenger oriented airlines, what we have these days are money grubbing, profit making machines who, unfortunately have to make their money by carrying passengers, Ugh, treated worse than cattle, packed in like sardines in a can, with crews who are worked harder than ever, the target today is the bottom line period! I yearn for the old days, alas, gone forever.
Moo!
In 1955 a 'tourist class' ticket to from San Francisco to Honolulu cost the equivalent of $2593 in 2016 dollars. If you want to pay that much you can still get fantastic service from almost any airline. Don't be surprised if the luxuries go away a bit when the ticket price drops 90%.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_377_Stratocruiser
A transportation company tried to restore Pan Am as a regional carrier back in the early 2000's. The parent company, Pan Am Railways, which is a freight company based in Massachusetts, set up headquarters at Pease International Airport in Portsmouth, NH. When you treat passengers like cargo freight, things don't go well. And it didn't. The general public was thrilled to have a carrier closer than Boston or Manchester, NH. Pan Am had a great opportunity to capture a large segment of Seacoast NH and Southern Maine. Sadly, inept management and lack of focus on passengers brought an end to Pan Am's rebirth.
PAA v.2.0 briefly provided daily service to "Gary/Chicago International Airport KGYY" (what a pretentious name!). A large part of their eventual demise was that they (similar to Amtrak) provided mostly destinations that were at best smaller and less desirable towns (not really cities). How many people do you suppose were actually interested in travelling from Gary, IN to Sarasota, FL?
Look at the width of those seats, those were the days, my friend, and edible food too. Ah yes, one could still get something for a buck, like a pack of cigs. and get enough change back for a cup of coffee, or two!
You are right about the seat widths and don't forget that you could set your seat way back, have a good snooze, you can't do that today or the guy behind you will likely bash you over the head with his Laptop, another notable item was the fact that people were NOT so fat and horrible days gone by, look at many of todays animals.
A recent rip to Vietnam I witnessed several 'Ladies' and many men who had to ask for belt extensions as the standard belt width doesn't serve a 55" inch waist line OMG, how times have changed. I have heard people describing the 'economy seats as 'Cattle Class' then looking at the size, and often the smell of these 'people' make me yearn for good old days when people acted in a civilised manner.
An ad for this plane stated the seats were 51" wide!!
What do you notice about every passenger too... those were the days my friend, those were the days.
Nice, thanks for uploading.
I remember being a little kid in the late 70's and flying Delta unescorted with my sister - ages five and eight!
We always got a tour of the cockpit along with meeting the captain and crew and we ALWAYS dressed up for flights in our best clothing.
We also always got a deck of cards to keep us busy and little plastic planes wit wings so sharp, an X-Acto would be jealous!
l know what you mean about wearing your "Sunday best" l live in Vegas where people use to get dressed up to the nines for a night on the strip, now it's T-shirts, shorts a flip-flops. l guess "self pride" along with common sense has gone by the wayside. Very, very sad. Hell even when l was a kid my parents would go out on Friday night for dinner and get dressed up. WTF has happened to us?
I remember buying and smoking cigarettes in the cabin in my teens. Nobody batted an eye. I think if they could charge you for breathing now, they would. It's simply not worth it anymore.
@@superchicken5285
Diversity
What, no wings to pin on your shirt?
Should have been on Western Airlines... the oooonly way to fly.
@@charles1964 is our strength.... they say
My mother flew from Chicago to Tokyo on a NW Orient Stratocruser in 1955 to meet my father, who was stationed at Yokosuka.
I missed this era, but I still remember propeller planes and stops in the Azores for refueling. The 1970s was a great time with almost empty planes, 747 lounges, parties on board. Lot's of fun.
At 10:32 on this video, we hear the voice of John Charles Daly, the moderator of the popular TV game show "What's My Line". Daly was also a news announcer, and he was the first radio reporter to announce to America that the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941.
@ 3:47 '...the pilot's parlour' That's a great name for the cockpit!
Nice to hear John Daley's voice as the "flight engineer" and the secondary voice on the film.
2:24 Gee, nice to see safety was a top priority. "Frank and Bob, just jump on that pallet so I can lift you up on the forklift to load the food supplies ... just don't step too far to the left or right".
There's always one........
@@stevenmeadows6917 Well, as they claimed in the movie Highlander "there can be only one".
Yep, not many accidents when folks are smart, fit, and pay attention...
The model shown @8:14 and described as a "Fokker F7" is in fact a Ford 4-AT "Trimotor". The Fokker's wing was raised slightly above the fuselage and its leading edge was even with the cockpit windscreen; not flush with the top with a set-back leading edge like the Ford's. The Fokker also didn't have windows above the cockpit because of the wing's placement. The angular rudder of the Ford is another easy identification feature. That's the first thing that caught my eye. The Fokker's is rounded.
Tx! I got completely confused when he mentioned a Fokker. No plane expert myself but something was off.
Thank you for this opportunity.
Best regards from Italy.
I really miss Pam Ann Airlines. I really thought they would have to stay in business at least till the year " 2001 ".
Amused to notice that the Time Magazine appearing at 20:42 is the March 28, 1949 issue on which Juan Trippe appears on the cover.
Flying at 25,000 feet is amazing. I've flown on a Q400 a few times and their service ceiling is 25,000'. Much better window views :)
Yes, but less weather at 35-40,000’ ;)
I've done Concorde at 60,000. You can see the subtle curve of the Earth and if you look upwards it's darker as the atmosphere is thinner
As is you can see more detail than the typical 35,000 cruise today?
Ironic that while people have gotten bigger their seat space has been minmised...thank you share holders
Fantastic video!
Love the Stratocruiser and Constellation!
Keep these wonderful videos coming!
I think there's only been two double-decked airliners since: The Boeing 747 (with a small upper cabin above the first-class and crew compartments) and the Airbus 380.
Even with the terrifying safety records the golden age of commercial aviation must have been amazing.
Boy, how things have changed.
Would give anything for some of that "old school" airline stuff.
‘It’s a meal any house wife would be proud to serve’
As I look down at my meal of microwaved mash and canned stew.
Not big on context are ya?
All the passengers are dressed so lovely.
Since Pan Am officially launched their Boeing 377 Stratocruiser flights in July 1947, this film dates from shortly after they were already in service.
This airplane was born when I was born--a couple of years after the end of WWII, when American parents were giving birth to millions of us 'baby boomer' kids, and were helping to rebuild the whole world into something livable again. I see now that we boomers lived in probably the best period ever to be an America--all as a gift from the 'Greatest Generation' who paid dearly to give their kids the luxury of a life they never had. But all you new generations won't see that in these old b&w movies, and despite the stress of the Cold War that came along a short time later and lasted into our middle-age, won't know how living in that era was total joy compared to the crappy world YOU (I'll be leaving soon) live in now. You may love all the 'toys' you have now that we didn't, but you'll never experience the happiness my generation did. It's ALL gone now, and I don't see how in our current social climate it can possibly return. As they say, 'it was a good gig while it lasted'.
Had the chance to see one of these aircraft in 1975 taxi and take off while stationed at Barksdale AFB. It was being used as an air refueling tanker by the Oklahoma National Guard. I think it's designation was KC-97. The one I saw was probably the last of the breed. Impressive aircraft.
It's a slightly different model, apparently they weren't retired until 1978:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_KC-97_Stratofreighter
When flying had elegance . Lady’s gents dressed up with manners and a smile . Today trailer trash fights , arrested woman men fighting with each over and the flight crew where did we go wrong folks
Besides smiles, what else do you notice about every single human in the video? The answer to my question, is the answer to yours...
Light up those cigarettes and taste that 7 course meal. Sure it took 11 hours and not 5, but getting there is half the fun. Check out that legroom.
I can only speak for myself, but I'd willingly tolerate longer flight times and slower speeds for more leg room and comfort.
In 1950, a round trip ticket from Chicago to Phoenix cost $138, in todays dollars that would be $1168. Today, it's $215-$390. Flying First Class today would cost $583-$937. Economy seat is 17.2" wide with 31" pitch. First Class is 21" wide with a pitch of 38". In other words, you can have more leg room and comfort by paying for First class today and it would be relatively cheaper than coach of 1950.
+mountnman3609 How much by train?
And if you actually get there, that's all of the fun (they had a terrible Hull loss percentage, and cruising at less than 20.000 ft couldn't have been 'fun' in bad weather)
Pan Am and TWA were great airline companies. Now we have Walmart of the skies airlines
Aka Spirit 😂 😂
I flew on one of those across the Atlantic when I was a kid; New York -> Gander -> Shannon -> London
"A constant flow of fresh air". Let's smoke!
Sad that we haven't made any gains toward comfort while flying (in coach at least) for over 60 years.
The early intercontinental passenger planes were four-engine propeller designs. For their time they were technological marvels. A one-way trip from Honolulu to Japan in the late 1950s took only 18 hours whereas it took two weeks by passenger ship. Of course, back then American airliners had to make quick refueling stops at Wake Island or Guam. My elderly mother remembers being a passenger on such a flight. The technological marvel of only 18 hours on board was lost on her. It was torture. When she finally arrived in Japan, she was ready to kiss the ground. Today's jet airliners fly at speeds from 500 mph to 540 mph. Back then the prop jobs might cruise at best around 175 mph and that was considered fast cruising speed for propeller engines. It helped that the passenger plane was flying nearly in a straight line; nearly, because the plane had to slightly divert to a refueling station along the way, as mentioned, in Wake Island or Guam en route to the Far East. Post-WW2, the U.S. military maintained a number of military outposts in South Korea and Japan. My father was not so lucky. He had to take a two-week ship voyage out of San Francisco to Yokohama, Japan.
That is an unusual Engine starting pattern. With multi engine aircraft it usually one engine on one side and then another on the opposite side, not all on one side and then the ones on the opposite side.
Oh, my. Oh, my. Today's first class must be a diminution of this luxury. Not that I would know. But. even before the creature comforts at the end of the video, didn't the presentation of the plane make us want to go along?
Amazing film, showing the luxury experience for wealthy passengers probably a bit like today when travelling first class, the Stratocruiser certainly a forerunner of the A380 flown by some carriers.
From 1957-60 I worked on the engines, C-97's plane...real pain in the butt. Hickam AFB.
The other narrator at 10:40 is JOHN DALY, who was a correspondent for CBS Radio at the time- and later became best known as the moderator of "WHAT'S MY LINE?" for 17 years (1950-'67).
I didn't pick up on it until you mentioned it.
I have absolutely no recollection of ever seeing a 49964. Quite a mouthful, really.
I loved this video for its historic value. It's an example of how the aircraft industry was trying to gain some value from all of the taxpayer's money that was invested in the development of large bomber and cargo aircraft and how what was learned and spent could be applied to the post war airline industry. Sometimes this idea works and as with the Boeing 377, it didn't. The radial engines in the B-29s were problematic from the beginning and issues continued with these complicated power plants as more and more demand was required from them. These engines created a maintenance nightmare that was costly and huge in relation to maintaining perpetual parts inventories around the world and the labor costs associated with them. (Having computers and the internet sure would have been handy.) Educating maintenance crews for these aircraft must have been a nerve wracking and costly task, considering the language barriers that existed in addition to the demands of flight schedules and the availability of safe and airworthy aircraft. The airline industry would have met its demise if it wasn't for some forward thinking and hard work on the part of Boeing with its jet engine power of the swept wing 707. The British were the first to incorporate jets into revenue service with the DeHavilland Comet, but they had their issues with deadly crashes due to air frame integrity failure and maintenance down time on the engines was high because of their engine's placement. The engines were incorporated into the wings for streamlining purposes. Regard for the maintenance crews gaining access was an afterthought. Boeing designers and engineers learned a lot from the jet bombers that were placed into operation at a rather fast pace because of the Cold War. The B-47 and B-52 both had their engines placed in pods that were hung beneath the wings. Engine access was simple and this excellent idea was quickly put to use with the 707. Other aircraft manufacturers also picked up on this great idea such as Douglas with their DC-8 and Convair with their numerous different models of civilian aircraft. In my opinion, the Boeing 707 saved the American airline industry with their innovation and ease of maintaining their new 707. Word spread like wildfire when a 707 was seen by thousands at an outdoor event as a 707 was witnessed doing a barrel roll maneuver on one of it's first test flights. The civilian jet age was born and the tangled web associated with keeping piston powered aircraft in the air became history in a very short time.
But MAN OH MAN, the Comet was a stunning looking aircraft. Of course the 3 and 4 variants solved most of the Comets issues, and the Nimrod variant proved itself in the long term, but the 707 was the future. Modern airliners still look much the same.
@@wintersbattleofbands1144 I fell asleep watching an old movie the other night, which featured a British Comet coming in for a landing.
I remember thinking about those big windows, and how they had a tendency to blow out. Such a shame, for such a beautiful design.
@@truthseeker2321 They didn't have a tendency to blow out, and the cause for fatigue cracking has been oversimplified to "square windows" at many sources - including usually reputable ones.
See the "Square window myths" section of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Comet
Boeing and others also all got the benefits of learning from the Comet. It seems likely that if any other company had released an equivalent(& likewise first) commercial plane at that time would've had major issues.
The 707 was also introduced 6 years later, which was a long time in that era of aircraft advancement. Even the B-47 was only released around the same time as the comet - plenty of those crashed, along with some never found nuclear weapons.
The music is perfect. Almost as perfect as the airplane.
Back when smoking on a flight was normal and each seat came with a stiff drink...for obvious reasons.
It's amazing how safe these were, all things considered.
But they weren't safe compared to modern aircraft
Pan Am: We need a bunch of airliners fast!
Boeing: We have a lot of B-29 parts and tooling from the war, we'll whip up something.
Yep! They were right calling this "The Golden Age of Aviation"!
Now you tell me.Was The USA an amazing place back then or what?Horrible what has happened to this country,absolutely horrible.That plane is classic made in the USA with pride.
1000%
I'm old enough to remember the thrill of boarding a 707 or 727. We looked at the crews like they were movie stars. Every single step in the process of flying was a moment to remember. Actual metal silverware, glass glasses, real food, smiles.
Another time, a wonderful time, glad I was allowed to be alive during those wonderful times
Amazing documentary. Thanks!
I took my first commercial flight over fifty years ago, it was fun and comfortable with great meals. I can honestly say I despise air travel now. Interestingly, both my best and worst fights were aboard military aircraft. Worst flight was from Abbotsford, B.C. Canada to Gulfport Mississippi sitting on nylon webbing seats in the back of a C130. Noisy, uncomfortable, and no food other than an IMP (Individual Meal Packet) with no way to heat the main course. Best flights were to and from the Golan Heights in Israel from CFB Trenton in Ontario aboard an RCAF CC-150 Polaris (Airbus A310). The aircraft was only 1/3 full and we could have as many meals as we wanted. We could raise the arm rests and lay down full length across the middle rows of seats. Now, we only fly if it's too far to drive or we're going overseas.
Good video, thanks for uploading!
The Stratocruiser was developed from the B-29 and shared almost all of the airframe with the great bomber. I think Boeing installed more powerful engines on the Stratocruiser whhen they became available. Not that it was a lousy passenger airplane, the Stratocruiser, along with the DC-6 and -7 and the Lockheed Constellation were all made obsolete within a decade by the jets.
@ Harold VanSlyck: You are right about the engines. The B-29 had Wright Cyclone turbo-compound 18-cylinder radials (also used by the DC-6 and -7 and the Constellations) ; the Stratocruiser used the more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major 28 cylinder turbo-compound engines used on the B-50.
The Wright Cyclones were extremely complex and I recall the engines of the earlier Connie's were W Cyclones, from what I am told by my Aero Engineering Buddies, they were complex and difficult to work on,bear in mind, they were to be the last of piston engines when the simpler jets out sold them. Civil aircraft have been as changeable as military types, FASHION, Speed, Costs per Statute Miles 'v' Seat Prices were soon to become 'supersonic,' nowadays, it's the bottom line which drives Airlines where previouslylate forties to around early 60's, Airlines focussed on Passengers, how things have changed.
Too expensive to operate commercially. Only the US Govt. can piss away money like that.
Harold VanSlyck : it was actually developed from the B-50, which came from the B-29.
Designed without computers.
@ 17:35 "radiant heating and air conditioning combined to keep a constant flow of fresh air..."
As one guy hands another guy a cigarette.
Who wants to depart from those adventures, in a hurry! The dedication and work satisfaction was amazing.
Notice how the upper passenger part of the 8 has only 2 seats on either side of the asile in todays corp. mindset it would be enlarged "Streched" to 5 +5 and no leg room but PAA back in the day on this long legged relatively slow ( by B-707 standards) plane charged much more stuffed you w/ food and drink and did not overcrowd.
Dozens of Pillows.. Real Dinners.. Yes Airlines need to go back to these Standards ♥
Sure... be prepared to pay.
Pan Am Clipper outbound from San Francisco, passing over the Golden Gate Bridge. Next stop, Honolulu International Airport, Territory of Hawaii. Final stop, Tokyo, Japan.
joseph and evelyn bellacicco took the fligh to rome 1957 the flight was all first class best fligh ever
When air travel was an exciting adventure. Now it is just a gigantic pain in the posterior.
Elizabeth Reign Castillo you could not fly at all for the cost of today air travel. The people in this video would fly private or first today.
Yep, actually getting there was exciting
Has nobody else noticed Robert Downey's dad looks just like his son?
He seems to like getting high too but this for him means actually flying high in the sky.
What a fascinating family. @7.24
taketimeout2
Kind of along the same line, Alan Hale Sr. was a big time actor in the silent movie era, the only one I remember is Robin Hood. His son, Alan Hale, Jr. was most famous as the Skipper on Gilligan's Island.
Alan Hale, Jr. was also 'Casey Jones' on the TV series that ran 1957-68.
Legalize it! 🤗
03:15 - *"...spaciousness designed for more than just elbowroom..."*
They forgot all about that. In modern airliners we don't even have much elbowroom. "More than just elbowroom" is science fiction nowadays, unless you fly in business class.
This was when passengers were treated like kings and queens. Now is the other way around. I can't till they invent teleporting.
Real WeAreAllAmericans calculate the price in today's money. You could fly first easily for that price.
The heading photograph is of a Boeing 307 StratoLINER, not a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser. Very different, one was prewar the other post war.
David, Excellent catch on your part. I saw that, too.
Amazing only 4 decades after the first ever flight in a wire frame contraption to this monster! 😁
Saturday I was at the Wright Brothers Memorial at Kitty Hawk. The USAF Museum in Dayton has a KC97, it is a beast. Yoosa point is well spaken. JJB
I'm pretty sure the plane pictured was the first 377 in commercial service (the "Clipper Golden Gate"), and the first air route was San Francisco to Honolulu.
This was the "latest and newest" back in the 50's. A bit more leg room than today's modern cramped aircraft.
And more than 10 times the price.
Pay the same as you did in the 50s and you'll probably be much *more* comfortable now. Modern aircraft aren't cramped, cheap seats are. There were no cheap seats then(even for "coach"), and likewise most people couldn't afford to fly. I think sometimes the leg room was also at least partly due to the weak lift of some aircraft.
People today would also still be cramped in many seats from the 50s & 60s, as there were already seats that were narrow(even if with more leg room) and many people today are...let's say less small.
La Compagnie also offer a business class only plane between NY & Paris, it's almost certainly nicer overall & still cheaper than a flight(for any class) would've been in the 50s.
When did we stop taking such a pride in things that we did well?
It’s amazing that the blueprints and many of the ensuing tests could be done on a laptop today using virtual reality. This is one of the reasons technology is advancing at a blinding rate today.
Imagine building a plane using a slide rule......
Aircraft aren't advancing at a blinding rate, they were changing much faster at the time this film was made than now. Changes on modern aircraft have been incremental for decades, and the *average* age of modern commercial jets is routinely nearly 25 years old. A 25 year old aircraft up until about the 1980s would've been wildly outdated.
Likewise computing power increases are much slower than they were in the 80s and 90s, miniaturisation has perhaps been the biggest change in recent years. Heck technology such as usable/affordable holograms were expected by people in the 1990s to have been common well before now.
People seem to assume all technology is changing faster now just because it's common in daily usage.
Planes are still thoroughly tested in real flights, likewise deep knowledge, foresight, etc also have value beyond computer simulations/tools - as Boeing has unfortunately repeatedly shown with recent aircraft & manufacturing. I can't see VR helping testing much.
Computers are just tools, they don't make anything. It's not amazing that anything could be made without a computer, and likewise being able to use a computer(which itself of course relies on designs & coding by knowledgable people) doesn't automatically make everything possible.
Thank you for your video AND comments below -- very interesting -- those were the "good old days" in many ways, and we wish we could return to much of them!
Yeah? What about the modern world would you be willing to give up to go back then? Modern medicine? Computers? More than three TV channels? Color TV? The interstate highway system? The ability to fly quickly and safely almost anywhere in the country for a fairly low price? It was different then, but it wasn't really better.
“A million and a half dollars wrapped in aluminum.” Sounds like my pot roast.
In the late 60s and early 70s, when the clippers and the KC-97s were still flying, a train with 14,000 HP could pull a 33,000 ton (66,000,000 lbs) train on flat ground. It can also pull a 14,000 ton ( 28,000,000 Lbs) train at 50 MPH on flat ground.
A one-way flight New York to Paris in 1955 cost $2,700 in today's dollars. You pay that kind of money, you get that kind of luxury. You got that kind of money? Then kudos to you. Some people would rather pay half that for a round trip, skip the white gloves and champagne and get there safer in a quieter, less polluting aircraft and in a fraction of the time, thanks.
Yep!
New York to Paris, France: $310 in 1955, $2,622 adjusted for inflationNew York to Rome, Italy: $360.20 in 1955, $3,046 adjusted for inflationPittsburgh to San Francisco: $96 in 1955, $812 adjusted for inflationSan Francisco to Chicago: $76 in 1955, $643 adjusted for inflationPhoenix to Chicago: $69 in 1955, $584 adjusted for inflation
gadling.com/2013/07/30/air-travel-relatively-cheap/
It looks like a giant Orca with engines and wings.
The closest I got to flying PanAm was flying in a charter Tower Air 747 back in 87. Still had PanAm on the seatbelt buckles.
Back then men and women had some backbone to them . They called for respect ,duty and will also give it . Today people are lazy no backbone or care . This is why we are in the shape we are in . We are what our government is today as it was back then . Folk dont whine or cry . Dont blame someone else or there party . Blame your self .
the 40s and 50s were awesome
So were the 60s and 70s :)
boy i never got a meal like that on a plane
It was only up until around 30 years ago, the airlines would actually feed you. Some of the better meals I've ever had were up in the air. They still do it on many international flights.
Absolutely correct, thirty years ago airline pax were considered as human beings, these days we are no more than 'Walk on baggage', (Overheard British Airways Cabin Staff London to Singapore), if you want 'yesteryears' treatment where pax are treated as humans, you'd have to fly Cathay Pacific, Qantas, or Air New Zealand, great Cabin Staff and great food in both classes.
great film! thanks for uploading :)
I don't fly today...no comfort, too crowded, small seats, lousy food, indifferent stewards, questionable maintenance procedures. Money is put before safety. There have been many accidents that were directly linked to saving money over safety.
don't forget about the hunger games from united
Fly Qantas. Best safety procedures in the world and their flight attendants are well paid. If you've got the money to fly business class they'll treat you like a king.
No comfort, too crowded, small seats, lousy food...Change it. Fly First Class. First Class today is relatively cheaper than coach was in the '50's...Questionable maintenance procedures, money before safety... Obviously you have no clue of the accident rates of aircraft in the '50's. In 1952, Midway airport in Chicago had 5 million passengers. O'Hare wasn't opened for commercial traffic until 1955. Today Midway does 18 million people and O'Hare does 78 million. 5 million people at one airport to 96 million at two. In 1948, Atlanta had just over 1 million passengers. Today 104 million.
The AF ANG had some in Frankfurt ,Rhine Main AFB in1976. These were tankers and had jets on the wings, I think j-65's that burned the av-gas of the radials.
Can't get Airplane the movie out of my head as i watch this. It's so presumptuous that it needs some levity... "Over, Over, roger Roger"...
You realize when this was filmed, right?
I noticed Robert Downey, SR in the opening credits.
Me too, and Was it Gary Cooper in dark shades boarding the plane?
I thought it would be Robert Downey Sr. also but he was born in 1936 so it can't be him...
check it out, back then you can go to an airport and see airplanes (reference people on the open tarmac watching the 377 depart). Is that Alec Baldwin as Juan Trippe at 10:51?
No screaming babies. Amazing.
The civilian version of the B-29. Same wing and engines..but they finally got them to stop burning in mid-flight. Usually!
Actually, it was based on the B-29's successor, the B-50, so different engines.
I love the commentary. It is so typical of its time trying to impress the old folks.
"The co-pilot gets the signal BY RADIO" Good God!! Really!
Ah, those were the days of luxury air travel with the alternative choice of fabulous passenger liners. Now it's crap all the way.
Except aircrafts of that era had a regrettable tendency to crash - and it was quite a headache for investigators to find why since there was no black boxes until the mid-60s. To my knowledge, Australia was the first country to make those devices mandatory for all commercial passenger aircrafts. Basically the black boxes came with the jets.
You make it sound as if flying was too dangerous in those days. Yes, there were more crashes then but statistics show it to be much safer than a car. The "Strat" was actually one of the least safe because the engines tended to catch fire - not good!!
Safety aside, air travel then was fab.
Julosx, Your are correct there, A
The so called Black Box was designed by an Australian, however, it took almost ten years to have it adopted by airlines, when, after high numbers of crashes, the airlines had to accept it, another safety feature were the "STROBE' lights on aircarft, I believe they were an American Pilot's idea, a damned good one too.
The problem is that there are too many people going everywhere - not the airplane or carriers fault.
Actually they didn't want anyone to know they just hollered up through the windows! Lol. =-)
The Stratocruiser was the Jumbo of its day, but a maintenance nightmare. Cost per mile was more than double that of a DC-6. Tell you what, though, that tall, dark stewardess was a stunning woman!
This all looks wonderful--except that smoking was still permitted on airliners, which makes me thankful for today's air travel.
She had a nasty habit of throwing propellers and ditching in the Pacific. She lasted barely 10 years.
1:45 I was hoping this would be the airframe for the original Pregnant Guppy: N1024V. Missed it by _that_ much.