My grandfather flew a Chile-Bolivia route with LAB during the 1950s, these were the golden years and his nickname was “el rompe nubes”= the cloud destroyer. He had 6 daughters and one son, the youngest one, every time he would arrive to his city in Bolivia, he would fly close to his house so that his family would hear and see him. A fancy company car would pick him up when he was ready, and take him to the airport where all his passengers would greet him like a celebrity, like I said...the golden age. One time his pilot friend got sick and my he offered him to take his flight from Chile to Bolivia so he would rest. When he was flying up to the Andes, engine failure happened and he couldn’t climb high enough and ended up crashing. They hit really hard and it was early in the flight, so everybody burned and the only way they could recognize him was by his wedding ring. Many planes this pioneer company had bought were faulty and the ground crews inexperienced. My grandfather was not the only one, many pilots went down like that and left a whole neighborhood of children fatherless. The saddest part to me is that my uncle was only 3 weeks old when this happened. There is a monument on the old airport of my city to remember these pilots, it has a real DC-6 propeller. This video gives me a sense of how things might have been for him, a person I have always wished to meet.
I flew on a DC-6 in 1952, my first airplane ride at the age of 4. I remember it very vividly....a very comfortable and exciting flight from MDW to LGA on vacation with my parents. It started my career in aviation, for nearly 40 years later I flew DC-8's as a pilot. Douglas certainly built rugged airplanes and very advanced for its time. The DC-6 and DC-7 series were the fastest propliners in their day. In fact, it was so fast it actually had a Mach meter and many of you airline pilots know what that is.
Having watched this video through to the end I was entertained by the rather dated vocabulary, and simple electronics used. In those days passengers dressed well and not like they were doing the gardening or going fishing.
I flew in a DC-6 as a charter with my high school band in 1971 from Cincinnati to St Petersburg. This was the first plane I ever flew in. Many years later I took my wife an her first airplane ride from Cincinnati to Tampa. She was just as nervous as Mrs Bennett.
Странно, что музыкальная заставка к этому фильму очень сильно напоминает завершающий лейтмотив к выпускам Deutsche Wochenschau периода вторжения в Советский Союз.
when I was a young Airman and assigned to Tachikawa Air Base, Japan. I flew as a passenger to get there. The military version of this aircraft was designated as the C-118. The seats were mounted backwards. I flew from Travis Air Force Base. California to Japan facing the rear of the aircraft. We had stops in Hawaii, Wake island enroute. Total flying time was over 30 hours. Those were the days.
This was the second model of airliner I flew when I was a child. The first was a DC-3. Both were flown by United Airlines. Back then many of the smaller regional airports were on military bases because they were the only local places that had airfields. I still think these early aircraft were beautiful machines.
This video is enchanting and inspiring. As a college freshman I; 1965-66, I commuted via United Airlines every six weeks between Los Angeles and Flint, Michigan to attend the General Motors technical college. LA to Chicago was handled by jetliners, but the O’Hare to Flint run was served by DC-6, with stops at Grand Rapids and Muskegon. Compare to the first generation jets (707s and DC-8s) the prop plane had noticeably higher acceleration as well as a shorter takeoff run. When I could, I would choose a window seat inline with the Pratt & Whitney engines. As noted in this video, upon touchdown the flight engineer would throw the props into reverse pitch to shorten the landing roll. I could see the prop blades flex slightly and the engines would backfire as if in protest as they helped slow the airliner down. For this engineering student and airplane buff, it was much more interesting and dramatic than jet travel. Of course, jet engines are less maintenance intensive than piston engines were, but I hope United Airlines is still as meticulous as this video shows.
Well howdy, fellow alumnus! I also went to General Motors Institute in Flint. Class of '85, though. I was sponsored by Allison Gas Turbine Div. in Indianapolis. I had the adventure one time of flying the GMATS plane from Indy to Detroit City to visit the Tech Center. It was a Convair 580 that was powered by Allison T56's.
Wonderful to share this story., thanks very much a for that. I went back on my age to this period., its a real privilege to have the possibilities to take a picture with your father
I flew DC-4s and DC-6s....my favorite planes. They didnt fly that high, the take offs were slow and one could appreciate things more. The ones I flew had small fans and these would start right before the engines. The anticipations was Everything a 7 year old could have wished for. Good old childhood memories.
I've enjoyed not only the video, but the comments other viewers, as well. I do remember the DC-6 (B and C): American, Pan American, and (especially) Western. (My family lived on Manila in the 50s; in the late-40s/early-50s, Philippine Air Lines used the DC-6 on their trans-Pacific route; also, Manila was a prime stop for the European carriers on their Japan-Southeast Asia-Europe runs, and Swissair used the 6.) And I'm in total agreement with all of you have commented on the "Golden Age of Flying": yes, there was more room (even in what was then called "tourist class"); yes, you were fed --- and fed well, too (to the end of his life, my father remembers Western's "hunt breakfasts"); and yes, flying was something special, so people did drees up. Oh, well: at least we have our memories --- and clips like this help keep them alive. Thanks so much this post!
I used to fly on the DC-6 from my hometown to Anchorage. Reeve Aleutian Airways had a number of them. I still see the occasional DC-6 taking off out of Anchorage International or Palmer Airport 40 miles to the north.
I was once flown to Rota Spain from Naples Italy, then on to New London for submarine training. I knew it was a DC-6 (C-118)., and couldn't have been more surprised at seeing those thin, backward facing, O.D. green fabric seats! They were quite comfortable though. When we took off, it seemed like it took forever to gain altitude. It's a cool memory I have from my service in the submarine navy.
In the early 60's I flew on United's DC 6's to and from Chicago/ Cleveland where I was going to college. I saved a few extra cents whenever I could so that I could do this instead of taking a bus or the New York Central railroad --which would have been OK except that it stopped every forty of fifty miles all the way to or from Chicago and took forever. In those days I also frequently hitch-hiked one leg of the trip. And that was pretty easy back then. The country was a better, safer place to be by far than it is today. A nicely dressed college kid with a suitcase was not considered a threat to anyone.
Classic airliner, classic music (got to love C.M. von Weber background). My first flights were in a DC-6B (with the newer livery) between LGA and CLE from the mid 50's to the early 60's. Fell in love with flight on that aircraft. Have to say, I was in a DC-6B cockpit a couple of months back and the throttle quadrant didn't have the two sets of controls as in the video. Still, thanks for posting - brings back many memories.
Flying at that time was primarily for the rich. This was for your CEO or Neurosurgeon not Joe Sixpack. I'm sure they new they were being filmed and dressed accordingly.
@@quietcorner293 That was before the Airline Deregulation Act of 1977, when airlines were closely regulated, in every venue, by the Civil Aeronautics Board, and many were subsidized by the government, to guarantee passenger and mail service to smaller cities.. They could not freely compete on routes, fares, or flight frequencies; but only on the level of passenger service and personal attention.(As the, "Sumptious" meals, with real silverware and linen napkins) The fares were, in fact, quite high, and passengers did dress like the Cleavers. Load factors were important, but not a critical element of the bottom line. After deregulation, (When I had already been flying for 12 years) it became a free market industry, with airlines able to fly wherever they pleased, and compete in fares, equipment, and routes that adopted the wrong . That's when the Greyhound passengers took to the air and demanded Queen Mary style first class treatment, and civility disappeared ---- as did Braniff, Northeast, Pan Am, Eastern, and many others.
Mom was a UAL stew. A favorite story was serving dinner then going to the cockpit to serve only to find the crew asleep, DC 6 on auto pilot, over the Grand Canyon
BS. The pilots had to stay in radio contact with enroute air traffic control, make timely position reports, change frequencies from controller to controller, etc.
Vince Sbardella It was a different time. There were places, like parts of Az. That had no radio coverage. Chuck, my Dad worked for United from 1950 to retirement in about ‘86.
The only piston engined commercial flight I have made was on a Martin 404 with Piedmont Airlines - from Norfolk, VA to Covington, KY (aka Cincinnati International but is in KY). Later in life I learned how to fly single engine aircraft - mostly Piper PA28s and C172 and C182. Did get an instrument rating also.
How did you like the PA28 ? (a Piper Colt, I believe -- please correct me, if I am wrong ...I'm now 75 yrs. old). As I recall that thing flew like a brick with the engine at idle whereas the Cessnas floated forever. I too have a commercial license and instrument rating; but when my ability to hear and mentally organize rapid radio taxi and other ground instruction had dissipated, I had to give it up. My flight skills were all still in tact, but my hearing was not. If I have a good radioman in the cockpit with me, I can still fly my private plane. But I'm lost when I hear this: "1234 ZuluwhenyouhaveinformationJulieton116.2you'recleartotaxitorunway34right viataxiwayCharlieholdshortofrunway14rightaltimetertwoninerninersevensquawk2773 ............and I reply "Say again?"
Back in the day when people were convinced their plane would crash before it made it to the destination. Anyone else remember those insurance machines all over the airport, where you could buy extra insurance to feed your family after they pulled your mangled body out of the wreckage? There was a lot more white knuckle flying back then.
@@tdoheron In 1976 or '79 an off-duty pilot travelling in mufti in a backseat on a Concorde out of Washington saw a hole appear in one of the wings (runway debris?) as the plane was taking off. The French cabin crew ignored him when he tried to tell them, thinking he was a panicky nut, but only after he'd dragged a stewardess over to the small window was he able to get the flight aborted (before the plane's increasing speed started to pull the damaged wing apart). A story in a 2000 issue of "Airliner" magazine that I found in a graveyard (I never buy any magazines).
I use to do a lot of flying between Los Angeles and Hawaii during the 90's. My Dad being from the Greatest Generation insisted that I get Flight Insurance and get the max coverage. I would buy it just so I wouldn't have hear the stories he would tell me about his exploits of flying in DC-3's over the S. Pacific during WWII. He passed away in 1998. Sure would love to hear how he survived all those harrowing flying experiences one more time, and telling him not to worry, that I would get the Flight Insurance max coverage.
Like Mr. Huff, I flew to Germany in 1964 on a 118 from McGuire AFB to Frankfurt. We stopped in Gander New Foundland and Prestwick Scotland. A breezy 23 hours of flight time....backwards.
What, you expect them to choose the ugly ones to star in their promotional video? They wouldn't even do that today, aside from a few obvious tokens to appease the politically correct who complain about "discrimination against ugly people". However, they also wouldn't chose the most gorgeous ones.
I love how the flying public would get dressed to the nines when boarding a plane in those days. Just last week there was a young man wearing fashionable ripped jeans and t-shirt. Have we lost something in this short interval of time?
I was always under the impression that "rowt" was the more archaic term. My father always insisted on calling road our how "the Star Rowt", while the new, official designation was "Root 215". He refuses to use the term "root", because it was traditionally "rowt". "Root" is the English, "correct" way to say it, so a lot of wannabe cosmopolitan types like to use that term, so they don't sound "old fashioned" and rural. I don't know where you get the idea that "rowt" is some modern way of saying it! That usage is dying out, as far as I can see.
The very First airliner I ever rode on was a DC-6! From Mexico City to the Yucatan. On one of the legs of our trip the DC-6 had a huge convex window on the side of the fuselage. I could sit at a dedicated sofa and look out over the earth through this huge window as I flew past. That was so amazing to my five-year-old mind and it left an impression on me to this day, nearly 54 years later! Why can't we fly on airliners like this anymore? Now we are stuffed into awkward tin cans with only tiny windows, having another passenger's seat backs in our faces while riding our knees. TSA shows the government doesnt trust us and passengers are taught to dislike each-other with every slam of an overhead luggage compartment.
I'm with you, no way to answer your concerns except, fly " First Class ", but I realize this is ridiculous, we now live in a different world we lived in when we were young, I am now 70 and would do anything to go back in time, do you have a time machine?
John Anderson You may be right! I was referring to times when air travel was a luxury and not so much automation was involved when flying an aircraft ;)
I get what you mean, the age when pilots had to do all calculations manually, use sextants for navigation, and the stewardesses were good looking and the Me too movement did not exist.
A beautiful airline plane. Too bad that they (airline companies) don't use them for a select passenger group who don't need "quick & fancy" to get to a destination, but, just enjoyable time to fly like the classic days of decades past. A lot of alert work is shown how we take for granted that labor work to prepare for flying in safety.
It would be too much liability for a modern company to use old, "dangerous' equipment like this. Besides, it would cost so much to build and maintain...and insure.... a special fleet of piston liners that they'd have to charge the passengers $2,000 a head for the service. No, if you want to fly a DC-6, or other prop liner, best to find a small company that specializes in owning and flying one or two old liners. It'll still cost you $2,000 to fly, probably, but it's more realistic.
Douglas built such a long line of successful aircraft, and they had such good lines too. It's too bad the J-57s on the DC-8 turned off so many buyers. It was a great aircraft.
The Convair 880 and 990 were supposedly the fastest subsonic airliner ever built, but the DC-8 was the only one ever intentionally flown supersonic, in a shallow dive over Edwards Air Force Base.
Now is nowadays is like attention everyone the flight is cancelled due to weather the foods are cheap here's your bag of peanuts in a can of Coke is $5 and about 3 hours late
Not really, according to my father. He used to fly Chicago to New York every weekend in 1955-56. There was only one time he recalled turbulence enough to be frightening. They got caught in a thunderstorm. Of course, these planes were a slow cruise compared with the helicopters he flew in Korea.
The flight engineer looks crowded. Doesn't he have his own work station? Also, these were times when flying was glamorous and luxurious. Today, passengers are herded like cattle; All that's missing is the prod. I used to LOVE to fly. Now, I will never fly again.
As a child I flew on this model plane in the 1950s. The interior was all maroon cloth. The female cabin staff was rather self-important and overbearing..
I can imagine. My first flight was on a BOAC 707 from London to Sydney. The cabin crew could not have been nicer. I suppose they had already moved on a long way by then. Today we fly on buses with wings. Vacation passengers in bars from 5.am before flying. At least in the UK.
That's one of the reasons people hate to fly in 2018. It all depends on staff attitude. I flew on United in 2010...the staff was great and spoke to each person who was awake.
"where they replace every part except the skin"? I highly doubt that. It would be cheaper just to build a new plane, for one, and for two, it wouldn't make any sense....you overhaul the critical and wearing parts first. There is no need to replace the spars when you take the engine in for an overhaul. Anyway, changing "all the parts but the skin" is not an "overhaul", it's a _rebuild_ - if they even do that with airplanes. And you don't rebuild something until it's old; if not in terms of years, then in operating hours or wear. But even during a rebuild they don't replace as much as he seems to suggest here...it's literally cheaper to build a brand new plane. You'd save the cost of a new skin (which also doesn't make sense, since skin is a stressed member, as well as exposed to abuse and damage, and might be expected to be one of the _first_ things needing to be replaced on a plane!) but it would be overcome by the cost of transporting an old plane back and carefully disassembling it, etc. It'd be cheaper to scrap the old plane and use all the new parts to build a new one, with a new skin as well. This is, of course, going by what he said about "replacing every part except the skin". A _normal_ , sensible overhaul is totally different. That makes economic sense, but doesn't replace anything near that percentage of components. You bring it in at certain set numbers of hours, and you replace all the components that are nearing the end of their design lives at that point, some being much shorter lived than others. By the time the plane is quite old, you might get up to putting new wings on it (whole new wings; wouldn't make any sense to try to replace just a wing spar by itself), and also to reskinning it, since the orignal skin is quite likely corroding, cracking and/or dented and patched by that time.
Seems like this film was aimed at Elementry school kids .if your old enough you will remember these educational films. Probably why the narration is so pronounced 😳
What's with the pronunciation of Los Angeles with a HARD G? Listen at 15.10. LOS ANGLE LES!!?? I'm English. I didn't know if at one time Americans pronounced "route" the right way as in "root", not "rout" as in "utter defeat". I'd like to think so.
And what, pray tell, is the "right" way to say any word? I bet Englishmen from 1650 would be pretty appalled at modern British English. Even from the early 1700s. We pronounce things differently in the US. It has nothing to do with the "right" way to say it. "Rowt" is proper pronunciation; do the English call a router a "rooter"? You're the people who pronounce "draught" as "draft", for fucks sake! And I bet if you go over most of England, you'll find many words pronounced in 7 different ways...some of them hardly intelligible. Which exact form of British English is the "correct" one? Language is a evolving, fluid thing. As long as people can communicate properly with it, it's "correct", and personally, I _like_ that it varies from region to region. Once they've managed to institute global government and have mandated universal education in the "correct" way of thinking, they can teach everyone everywhere to speak one bit, homogeneous universal language, so people in Australia will speak the same as people in Liberia, who will speak the same as people in North Carolina. I hope I'm dead by then. Until then I enjoy hearing the few remaining people who speak with a old New England accent, and I _like_ hearing a guy using a Deep South drawl. I get a kick out of listening to the various thick regional English dialects. They are all dying out fast enough with TV and global communication as it is. I'm certainly not going to go around and tell them they are doing it "wrong" because they don't say it the same way I do. Only a dick would do that.
Wow! The seating had enough room for women to wear those hats! Too bad we don't have these anymore. I'd fly a 6534 even if it takes three times as long as a jet. People had class and dignity in those days. Today, you're groped and scanned by a surly TSA agent, sit and wait while staring at your phone, wear crummy clothes, sit squished so close you have to smell everyone around you, and even worse if your seatmates are obese! Yes, if you're fat, please buy two seats. Everyone will be more comfortable. People don't discipline their kids and someone invariably gets into an argument or complains continually. This why I drive just about everywhere.
Wish I had turned eighteen in 1950 and not 1962. Today everything is manufactured on the cheap. The profit motive and commercialism will be the demise of America. The age of cheap, synthetics, and low quality are here to stay. No way will I take to the skies. Put me on a DC 6 and I'll know that I will arrive safely.
Sad to think those were desirable, sought after jobs back then. Now mostly done by machine, and half the employees feel like they are unfairly being made to labor, and they ought to be getting $50 an hour for condescending to labor. If it wasn't for that damn rent and car and credit car payments, by god, they'd tell these guys to go shove it. Several Generations now since we, as a society, started teaching our kids that work is something to be ashamed of and avoided. Only suckers work, smart people game the system or work as little as possible for as much pay as they can get. Loyalty, pride, what are those? Companies today try to get around it by bribing their employees...who can reward people the best for condescending to come and work for them? Sad.
1950 was 69 years ago. I was 5 years old when this was made. Damn, I'm old.
I flew on a DC-6 only once, in the mid-1960s. I had a close view of one of the engines, which showed flames at the exhaust ports.
My grandfather flew a Chile-Bolivia route with LAB during the 1950s, these were the golden years and his nickname was “el rompe nubes”= the cloud destroyer. He had 6 daughters and one son, the youngest one, every time he would arrive to his city in Bolivia, he would fly close to his house so that his family would hear and see him. A fancy company car would pick him up when he was ready, and take him to the airport where all his passengers would greet him like a celebrity, like I said...the golden age. One time his pilot friend got sick and my he offered him to take his flight from Chile to Bolivia so he would rest. When he was flying up to the Andes, engine failure happened and he couldn’t climb high enough and ended up crashing. They hit really hard and it was early in the flight, so everybody burned and the only way they could recognize him was by his wedding ring. Many planes this pioneer company had bought were faulty and the ground crews inexperienced. My grandfather was not the only one, many pilots went down like that and left a whole neighborhood of children fatherless. The saddest part to me is that my uncle was only 3 weeks old when this happened. There is a monument on the old airport of my city to remember these pilots, it has a real DC-6 propeller. This video gives me a sense of how things might have been for him, a person I have always wished to meet.
I flew on a DC-6 in 1952, my first airplane ride at the age of 4. I remember it very vividly....a very comfortable and exciting flight from MDW to LGA on vacation with my parents. It started my career in aviation, for nearly 40 years later I flew DC-8's as a pilot. Douglas certainly built rugged airplanes and very advanced for its time. The DC-6 and DC-7 series were the fastest propliners in their day. In fact, it was so fast it actually had a Mach meter and many of you airline pilots know what that is.
Bazzy : We only had very tuff bushplanes up here, but I gotta know ;
circa 1960 , what was the best 4-engine --
Electra, Convair, or Douglas ?
thx!
Having watched this video through to the end I was entertained by the rather dated vocabulary, and simple electronics used. In those days passengers dressed well and not like they were doing the gardening or going fishing.
How right! People even look messy at work. If they're covered in tattoos, it doesn't matter what they wear, they look bad.
I flew in a DC-6 as a charter with my high school band in 1971 from Cincinnati to St Petersburg. This was the first plane I ever flew in. Many years later I took my wife an her first airplane ride from Cincinnati to Tampa. She was just as nervous as Mrs Bennett.
Very educational, even considering this film is nearly 70 years old!
Странно, что музыкальная заставка к этому фильму очень сильно напоминает завершающий лейтмотив к выпускам Deutsche Wochenschau периода вторжения в Советский Союз.
when I was a young Airman and assigned to Tachikawa Air Base, Japan. I flew as a passenger to get there. The military version of this aircraft was designated as the C-118. The seats were mounted backwards. I flew from Travis Air Force Base. California to Japan facing the rear of the aircraft. We had stops in Hawaii, Wake island enroute. Total flying time was over 30 hours. Those were the days.
This was the second model of airliner I flew when I was a child. The first was a DC-3. Both were flown by United Airlines. Back then many of the smaller regional airports were on military bases because they were the only local places that had airfields. I still think these early aircraft were beautiful machines.
This video is enchanting and inspiring. As a college freshman I; 1965-66, I commuted via United Airlines every six weeks between Los Angeles and Flint, Michigan to attend the General Motors technical college. LA to Chicago was handled by jetliners, but the O’Hare to Flint run was served by DC-6, with stops at Grand Rapids and Muskegon. Compare to the first generation jets (707s and DC-8s) the prop plane had noticeably higher acceleration as well as a shorter takeoff run. When I could, I would choose a window seat inline with the Pratt & Whitney engines. As noted in this video, upon touchdown the flight engineer would throw the props into reverse pitch to shorten the landing roll. I could see the prop blades flex slightly and the engines would backfire as if in protest as they helped slow the airliner down. For this engineering student and airplane buff, it was much more interesting and dramatic than jet travel. Of course, jet engines are less maintenance intensive than piston engines were, but I hope United Airlines is still as meticulous as this video shows.
Well howdy, fellow alumnus! I also went to General Motors Institute in Flint. Class of '85, though. I was sponsored by Allison Gas Turbine Div. in Indianapolis. I had the adventure one time of flying the GMATS plane from Indy to Detroit City to visit the Tech Center. It was a Convair 580 that was powered by Allison T56's.
A United DC-6 was my first airplane ride @ age 4. Great fun.
I gotta say - for 1950, that maintenance facility looks awfully, impressive.
Wonderful to share this story., thanks very much a for that. I went back on my age to this period., its a real privilege to have the possibilities to take a picture with your father
I flew DC-4s and DC-6s....my favorite planes.
They didnt fly that high, the take offs were slow and one could appreciate things more.
The ones I flew had small fans and these would start right before the engines. The anticipations was
Everything a 7 year old could have wished for.
Good old childhood memories.
I've enjoyed not only the video, but the comments other viewers, as well. I do remember the DC-6 (B and C): American, Pan American, and (especially) Western. (My family lived on Manila in the 50s; in the late-40s/early-50s, Philippine Air Lines used the DC-6 on their trans-Pacific route; also, Manila was a prime stop for the European carriers on their Japan-Southeast Asia-Europe runs, and Swissair used the 6.) And I'm in total agreement with all of you have commented on the "Golden Age of Flying": yes, there was more room (even in what was then called "tourist class"); yes, you were fed --- and fed well, too (to the end of his life, my father remembers Western's "hunt breakfasts"); and yes, flying was something special, so people did drees up. Oh, well: at least we have our memories --- and clips like this help keep them alive. Thanks so much this post!
I used to fly on the DC-6 from my hometown to Anchorage. Reeve Aleutian Airways had a number of them. I still see the occasional DC-6 taking off out of Anchorage International or Palmer Airport 40 miles to the north.
I was once flown to Rota Spain from Naples Italy, then on to New London for submarine training. I knew it was a DC-6 (C-118)., and couldn't have been more surprised at seeing those thin, backward facing, O.D. green fabric seats! They were quite comfortable though. When we took off, it seemed like it took forever to gain altitude. It's a cool memory I have from my service in the submarine navy.
In the early 60's I flew on United's DC 6's to and from Chicago/ Cleveland where I was going to college. I saved a few extra cents whenever I could so that I could do this instead of taking a bus or the New York Central railroad --which would have been OK except that it stopped every forty of fifty miles all the way to or from Chicago and took forever. In those days I also frequently hitch-hiked one leg of the trip. And that was pretty easy back then. The country was a better, safer place to be by far than it is today. A nicely dressed college kid with a suitcase was not considered a threat to anyone.
I flew in a DC-6B in 1960 from Bermuda non-stop to London. A high density seating version with the 97 seats facing to the rear of the cabin.
Retired by United on September 29, 1968 and flown to Tracy, CA where it was scrapped.
sad really... such great workhorses in the 50s a great aircraft
By now some of the first 777s have been retired and may already be beer cans.
Miles Rich how are you able to get that information, I find that fascinating?
At least it had a dignified end...
But they said it would always be new!
Classic airliner, classic music (got to love C.M. von Weber background). My first flights were in a DC-6B (with the newer livery) between LGA and CLE from the mid 50's to the early 60's. Fell in love with flight on that aircraft. Have to say, I was in a DC-6B cockpit a couple of months back and the throttle quadrant didn't have the two sets of controls as in the video. Still, thanks for posting - brings back many memories.
Every DC-6 that ever flew had the dual throttle setup. Perhaps the one you were in was just missing some parts?
Anyone remember planes like this flying over and screwing up the TV reception?
You must be a grandpa... How old r u now?
What’s TV reception?
And the "Tenna-Rotor" didn't help.
Love the camera work on here especially the landing footage
The way United gushed about the DC6, it sounds like they actually believed it would be the last one ever designed.
The DC-6 was one of the first modern airliners after the war. United was a launch customer and Continental also flew "Sixes."
John Eddy Northwest Airlines flew the sixes as well.
As did numerous others.
19:04. I NEED that tie!
My family flew from Detroit to Indianapolis aboard one of these in 1965; my first flight.
A time when we had room for our legs
Aqui LAN Chile tuvo estos aviones. Yo volé en uno a Buenos Aires para nuestra Luna De Miel!
Fascinating film, thanks for presenting.
They dressed very well back then, now they dress like Slobs !
The middle class could afford to dress well in those days. Social pressure did the rest. How one presented themselves in public mattered more.
Flying at that time was primarily for the rich. This was for your CEO or Neurosurgeon not Joe Sixpack. I'm sure they new they were being filmed and dressed accordingly.
@@quietcorner293 That was before the Airline Deregulation Act of 1977, when airlines were closely regulated, in every venue, by the Civil Aeronautics Board, and many were subsidized by the government, to guarantee passenger and mail service to smaller cities.. They could not freely compete on routes, fares, or flight frequencies; but only on the level of passenger service and personal attention.(As the, "Sumptious" meals, with real silverware and linen napkins) The fares were, in fact, quite high, and passengers did dress like the Cleavers. Load factors were important, but not a critical element of the bottom line. After deregulation, (When I had already been flying for 12 years) it became a free market industry, with airlines able to fly wherever they pleased, and compete in fares, equipment, and routes that adopted the wrong . That's when the Greyhound passengers took to the air and demanded Queen Mary style first class treatment, and civility disappeared ---- as did Braniff, Northeast, Pan Am, Eastern, and many others.
Mom was a UAL stew. A favorite story was serving dinner then going to the cockpit to serve only to find the crew asleep, DC 6 on auto pilot, over the Grand Canyon
BS. The pilots had to stay in radio contact with enroute air traffic control, make timely position reports, change frequencies from controller to controller, etc.
Vince Sbardella It was a different time. There were places, like parts of Az. That had no radio coverage. Chuck, my Dad worked for United from 1950 to retirement in about ‘86.
I'm a retired pilot. 27 years with a major airline. (1966-1993)
The only piston engined commercial flight I have made was on a Martin 404 with Piedmont Airlines - from Norfolk, VA to Covington, KY (aka Cincinnati International but is in KY).
Later in life I learned how to fly single engine aircraft - mostly Piper PA28s and C172 and C182. Did get an instrument rating also.
How did you like the PA28 ? (a Piper Colt, I believe -- please correct me, if I am wrong ...I'm now 75 yrs. old). As I recall that thing flew like a brick with the engine at idle whereas the Cessnas floated forever. I too have a commercial license and instrument rating; but when my ability to hear and mentally organize rapid radio taxi and other ground instruction had dissipated, I had to give it up. My flight skills were all still in tact, but my hearing was not. If I have a good radioman in the cockpit with me, I can still fly my private plane. But I'm lost when I hear this: "1234 ZuluwhenyouhaveinformationJulieton116.2you'recleartotaxitorunway34right viataxiwayCharlieholdshortofrunway14rightaltimetertwoninerninersevensquawk2773 ............and I reply "Say again?"
A lot of time sure seems to be dedicated to convincing people that it was safe to fly.
Back in the day when people were convinced their plane would crash before it made it to the destination. Anyone else remember those insurance machines all over the airport, where you could buy extra insurance to feed your family after they pulled your mangled body out of the wreckage? There was a lot more white knuckle flying back then.
@@tdoheron In 1976 or '79 an off-duty pilot travelling in mufti in a backseat on a Concorde out of Washington saw a hole appear in one of the wings (runway debris?) as the plane was taking off. The French cabin crew ignored him when he tried to tell them, thinking he was a panicky nut, but only after he'd dragged a stewardess over to the small window was he able to get the flight aborted (before the plane's increasing speed started to pull the damaged wing apart). A story in a 2000 issue of "Airliner" magazine that I found in a graveyard (I never buy any magazines).
I do remember those insurance kiosks...even bought some once.
I use to do a lot of flying between Los Angeles and Hawaii during the 90's.
My Dad being from the Greatest Generation insisted that I get Flight Insurance and get the max coverage.
I would buy it just so I wouldn't have hear the stories he would tell me about his exploits of flying in DC-3's over the S. Pacific during WWII.
He passed away in 1998.
Sure would love to hear how he survived all those harrowing flying experiences one more time, and telling him not to worry, that I would get the Flight Insurance max coverage.
Like Mr. Huff, I flew to Germany in 1964 on a 118 from McGuire AFB to Frankfurt. We stopped in Gander New Foundland and Prestwick Scotland. A breezy 23 hours of flight time....backwards.
Note the Idlewild landing was actually @SF 28R
Idlewild! I haven't heard that name for a long time. Even in NY, most people under 60 wouldn't know where it is!
Yes, good catch, a few years ago Asiana 777 incident was at 28R, or 28L, don't remember now, but excellent observation, I am proud of you.
Very handsome staff, I am not being facetious, simply observational.
What, you expect them to choose the ugly ones to star in their promotional video? They wouldn't even do that today, aside from a few obvious tokens to appease the politically correct who complain about "discrimination against ugly people". However, they also wouldn't chose the most gorgeous ones.
I’d love to fly one. A true beauty.
I love how the flying public would get dressed to the nines when boarding a plane in those days. Just last week there was a young man wearing fashionable ripped jeans and t-shirt. Have we lost something in this short interval of time?
Love hearing the old pronunciations of 'route' (root), and 'Los Angeles' (angle-es)...
I was always under the impression that "rowt" was the more archaic term. My father always insisted on calling road our how "the Star Rowt", while the new, official designation was "Root 215". He refuses to use the term "root", because it was traditionally "rowt". "Root" is the English, "correct" way to say it, so a lot of wannabe cosmopolitan types like to use that term, so they don't sound "old fashioned" and rural. I don't know where you get the idea that "rowt" is some modern way of saying it! That usage is dying out, as far as I can see.
Kel Harper Interesting comments. However I never hear anyone call a network router a ‘rooter’!
Here in the Great Lakes region. ways to destinations are ROOTS. We only use ROWT for computer ROWTERS, or the machine tool.
Kel Harper I guess old johntungyep never heard of Route (root) 66!
Four 18 cylinder engines must have been a nightmare to maintain
The very First airliner I ever rode on was a DC-6! From Mexico City to the Yucatan. On one of the legs of our trip the DC-6 had a huge convex window on the side of the fuselage. I could sit at a dedicated sofa and look out over the earth through this huge window as I flew past. That was so amazing to my five-year-old mind and it left an impression on me to this day, nearly 54 years later! Why can't we fly on airliners like this anymore?
Now we are stuffed into awkward tin cans with only tiny windows, having another passenger's seat backs in our faces while riding our knees.
TSA shows the government doesnt trust us and passengers are taught to dislike each-other with every slam of an overhead luggage compartment.
I'm with you, no way to answer your concerns except, fly " First Class ", but I realize this is ridiculous, we now live in a different world we lived in when we were young, I am now 70 and would do anything to go back in time, do you have a time machine?
The golden age of aviation ;)
No one knew it at the time, but it ended with the 747.
The golden age of aviation is when planes can fly New York to Hong Kong in one hour in low earth orbit maybe 70 years from now.
John Anderson You may be right! I was referring to times when air travel was a luxury and not so much automation was involved when flying an aircraft ;)
I get what you mean, the age when pilots had to do all calculations manually, use sextants for navigation, and the stewardesses were good looking and the Me too movement did not exist.
John Anderson Exactly ;)
Peak hour has 500 airliners aloft!
A beautiful airline plane. Too bad that they (airline companies) don't use them for a select passenger group who don't need "quick & fancy" to get to a destination, but, just enjoyable time to fly like the classic days of decades past.
A lot of alert work is shown how we take for granted that labor work to prepare for flying in safety.
That's a great idea! The challenge would be to make exact replicas of these old but dependable planes.
It would be too much liability for a modern company to use old, "dangerous' equipment like this. Besides, it would cost so much to build and maintain...and insure.... a special fleet of piston liners that they'd have to charge the passengers $2,000 a head for the service. No, if you want to fly a DC-6, or other prop liner, best to find a small company that specializes in owning and flying one or two old liners. It'll still cost you $2,000 to fly, probably, but it's more realistic.
It would cost you a fortune...
Douglas built such a long line of successful aircraft, and they had such good lines too. It's too bad the J-57s on the DC-8 turned off so many buyers. It was a great aircraft.
The J57 was the military version of the JT3C. It was the latter that powered not only the DC-8 Series 10, but also the early Boeing 707.
The "J-57" was a military designation. And there was nothing wrong with it. The Boeing 707 sold just fine with it.
Robert Lee - I thought the DC-8 looked spindly compared the B707.
The Convair 880 and 990 were supposedly the fastest subsonic airliner ever built, but the DC-8 was the only one ever intentionally flown supersonic, in a shallow dive over Edwards Air Force Base.
@@kelharper7971 , and the DC-8 too.
USA after WW2(in the 50s) was at the highest point ever. A lot with the help of german tech. Aeronautical
They used to change the covers on the head rests after every flight. Now you may get a nice coating of afro-sheen, even in first class.
Great film, great aircraft!!!
I’d love to see them paint a Airbus A320-200 or Boeing 737-800 in the old United colours
If I could turn back time...........
I remember the lack of "rush", and the plenty of leg room even in coach.
When they were taking the engines apart he said "2,100 hp". At 7:06 he says "2,400 hp".
The 2400hp is max hp (for short periods) since it's extra wear on the engine, usually used for takeoffs.
The 2400 HP included water injection for takeoff and jet thrust from the exhausts.
Super , merci
Love the tablet which an air traffic controller used at 24:11
I wonder what happened when the reassemble had left over parts?
Pretty sweet starting with the Flash Gordon theme music. (Yes, I know what it really is.)
Makes me want to load up fax and fly my cal classic and a2a props
Did you see the r4360 on a trailer when the dc6 came out of the workshop.
Sure looks like one at 9:02!
I wish they make a dc 6 or dc 7 for x plane God they were sexy airplanes
Such great shots in this film. I wonder what the date actually was.... obviously early winter?
What was the cruising speeds of airplanes like this?
About 330 mph.
They didn’t show anyone being physically removed from the plane.
Does anyone know how to describe this genre of music?
I wonder if Mr. & Mrs. Bennett joined the Mile High Club...........
When people actually dressed well! not like now. Proper maintainence, not like flight 191 DC10 doomed by forklifted engine
mohider khana I Remember when That Plane Crashed, I Was in Jr high School and It Was My Late Baby Sisters Birthday 🙏🙏
Nostalgic
Now is nowadays is like attention everyone the flight is cancelled due to weather the foods are cheap here's your bag of peanuts in a can of Coke is $5 and about 3 hours late
Cruising at 19000 ft? The turbulence must have been terrifying
The DC-6 was one of the first modern, post-war airliners with a pressurized cabin.
Keith Waites Noisy,bumpy.
Enter the VICKERS VISCOUNTS TURBO PROPS.CAPITAL AIRLINES.
A wondrous flight experience.Quitet,fast and smooth.
@@johneddy908 I appreciate that but it still cruised at 19000 ft
Not really, according to my father. He used to fly Chicago to New York every weekend in 1955-56. There was only one time he recalled turbulence enough to be frightening. They got caught in a thunderstorm. Of course, these planes were a slow cruise compared with the helicopters he flew in Korea.
The worst turbulence I ever experienced was on a 747 flying at 36,000!
I love these videos, but who were they made for? Were they ran on primetime television or something back then?
sounds like Leslie Nielsen doing the voice over
Surely you can't be serious!
The narrator's voice is SO familiar -- but he got no credit for this gig -- anyone know who he was?
The flight engineer looks crowded. Doesn't he have his own work station? Also, these were times when flying was glamorous and luxurious. Today, passengers are herded like cattle; All that's missing is the prod. I used to LOVE to fly. Now, I will never fly again.
Was that Midway Airport or Ohare?
Midway, O'Hare did not open till around 1960 or 61.
As a child I flew on this model plane in the 1950s. The interior was all maroon cloth. The female cabin staff was rather self-important and overbearing..
Cabin staff should be no other way
I can imagine. My first flight was on a BOAC 707 from London to Sydney. The cabin crew could not have been nicer. I suppose they had already moved on a long way by then. Today we fly on buses with wings. Vacation passengers in bars from 5.am before flying. At least in the UK.
That's one of the reasons people hate to fly in 2018. It all depends on staff attitude. I flew on United in 2010...the staff was great and spoke to each person who was awake.
Always have been always will be
United DC-6s had blue cloth interiors, not MAROON.
is that Peter Graves narrating? His role in "Airplane!" jusr got funnier.
Back when United passengers were pampered, and not beaten up.
LOL !
The actions are basically the same than today
Сколько же стоил билет, если их обслуживали такие армии людей?
Music by Wagner?
Que bonitos aviones clasicos 🤗🤗😊😊🌎🇲🇽🙏
Does anybody except auto companies make promo films like this anymore?
"where they replace every part except the skin"? I highly doubt that. It would be cheaper just to build a new plane, for one, and for two, it wouldn't make any sense....you overhaul the critical and wearing parts first. There is no need to replace the spars when you take the engine in for an overhaul. Anyway, changing "all the parts but the skin" is not an "overhaul", it's a _rebuild_ - if they even do that with airplanes. And you don't rebuild something until it's old; if not in terms of years, then in operating hours or wear. But even during a rebuild they don't replace as much as he seems to suggest here...it's literally cheaper to build a brand new plane. You'd save the cost of a new skin (which also doesn't make sense, since skin is a stressed member, as well as exposed to abuse and damage, and might be expected to be one of the _first_ things needing to be replaced on a plane!) but it would be overcome by the cost of transporting an old plane back and carefully disassembling it, etc. It'd be cheaper to scrap the old plane and use all the new parts to build a new one, with a new skin as well. This is, of course, going by what he said about "replacing every part except the skin". A _normal_ , sensible overhaul is totally different. That makes economic sense, but doesn't replace anything near that percentage of components. You bring it in at certain set numbers of hours, and you replace all the components that are nearing the end of their design lives at that point, some being much shorter lived than others. By the time the plane is quite old, you might get up to putting new wings on it (whole new wings; wouldn't make any sense to try to replace just a wing spar by itself), and also to reskinning it, since the orignal skin is quite likely corroding, cracking and/or dented and patched by that time.
Good grief - a bit literal, are we? This is an advertisement, and in case you never noticed, advertising copy is usually just a little hyperbolic.
Seems like this film was aimed at Elementry school kids .if your old enough you will remember these educational films. Probably why the narration is so pronounced 😳
What's with the pronunciation of Los Angeles with a HARD G? Listen at 15.10. LOS ANGLE LES!!?? I'm English. I didn't know if at one time Americans pronounced "route" the right way as in "root", not "rout" as in "utter defeat". I'd like to think so.
I thought it a Russian accent
Thanks for the highlight
A lot of old movies they pronounce it Los Ang-e-les, depends what part of US you're from as far as root-rout.
In Spanish, the language of Los Angeles, it is normally pronounced with a hard "g"
And what, pray tell, is the "right" way to say any word? I bet Englishmen from 1650 would be pretty appalled at modern British English. Even from the early 1700s. We pronounce things differently in the US. It has nothing to do with the "right" way to say it. "Rowt" is proper pronunciation; do the English call a router a "rooter"? You're the people who pronounce "draught" as "draft", for fucks sake! And I bet if you go over most of England, you'll find many words pronounced in 7 different ways...some of them hardly intelligible. Which exact form of British English is the "correct" one? Language is a evolving, fluid thing. As long as people can communicate properly with it, it's "correct", and personally, I _like_ that it varies from region to region. Once they've managed to institute global government and have mandated universal education in the "correct" way of thinking, they can teach everyone everywhere to speak one bit, homogeneous universal language, so people in Australia will speak the same as people in Liberia, who will speak the same as people in North Carolina. I hope I'm dead by then. Until then I enjoy hearing the few remaining people who speak with a old New England accent, and I _like_ hearing a guy using a Deep South drawl. I get a kick out of listening to the various thick regional English dialects. They are all dying out fast enough with TV and global communication as it is. I'm certainly not going to go around and tell them they are doing it "wrong" because they don't say it the same way I do. Only a dick would do that.
Wow! The seating had enough room for women to wear those hats! Too bad we don't have these anymore. I'd fly a 6534 even if it takes three times as long as a jet. People had class and dignity in those days. Today, you're groped and scanned by a surly TSA agent, sit and wait while staring at your phone, wear crummy clothes, sit squished so close you have to smell everyone around you, and even worse if your seatmates are obese! Yes, if you're fat, please buy two seats. Everyone will be more comfortable. People don't discipline their kids and someone invariably gets into an argument or complains continually. This why I drive just about everywhere.
And don't forget that we charged you for at least 10 grants 😉
Wish I had turned eighteen in 1950 and not 1962. Today everything is manufactured on the cheap. The profit motive and commercialism will be the demise of America. The age of cheap, synthetics, and low quality are here to stay. No way will I take to the skies. Put me on a DC 6 and I'll know that I will arrive safely.
So how did wheelchair bound people get into these planes.
Sad to think those were desirable, sought after jobs back then. Now mostly done by machine, and half the employees feel like they are unfairly being made to labor, and they ought to be getting $50 an hour for condescending to labor. If it wasn't for that damn rent and car and credit car payments, by god, they'd tell these guys to go shove it. Several Generations now since we, as a society, started teaching our kids that work is something to be ashamed of and avoided. Only suckers work, smart people game the system or work as little as possible for as much pay as they can get. Loyalty, pride, what are those? Companies today try to get around it by bribing their employees...who can reward people the best for condescending to come and work for them? Sad.
Please see my reply to "InfiniteMushroom". It applies to your comment as well.
Never grow old? Ha!
I have a BOAC 707 safety card to someone who is interested and how much do they pay ???
The good old days, before political correctness, when you could smoke on the plane.