Growing Up In The Jet Age

My Goodness, what an age we’ve lived in.

Think about it.

When we were born to this apple a half-century ago, the world was so different from what it is today.

I think of my own life and The Jet Age. When I was born in 1956 on a snowy March evening in Washington, D.C., most people were not yet familiar with jet travel. Although the British DeHavilland Comet jetliner had flown and served travelers around the world, it had suffered from a series of fatal accidents and was grounded, never to achieve real commercial success again.

Boeing’s 707 jet transport was two years away from scheduled service – launched by Pan American World Airways in October of 1958 with that first trans-Atlantic passenger flight from New York to Paris. The Douglas DC-8 and Convair 880 would swiftly follow in the race against time. The Convair 880 was a rocket ship at speeds pushing 700 mph. The darned thing was fast!

Coast-to-Coast air travel in four hours was upon us.

In due course – it was “Pie in the Sky” and jet service to Los Angeles and San Francisco was four hours at 600 mph in sweet smooth comfort. You could be standing knee deep in snow and ice in New York and be in the warm California sun by afternoon ready to do business – and then – sit on the beach before heading to the airport the next morning. You could always catch a red eye and be in the office bright and early the next morning.

It was an incredible time to be alive.

We take a lot for granted today. It wasn’t always this easy. Today, you can jump on a Boeing 777 or Airbus A350 and fly nonstop to Australia, New Zealand, and South America and be there in hours. You couldn’t do that in 1960. Despite the advent of jet travel, jets didn’t have the benefit of range. To travel halfway around the world, you had to hopscotch from refueling stop to refueling stop and from plane to plane. It was a grueling journey for a lot of people.

Jets made it faster.

I flew for the first time at age 5 from Baltimore’s Friendship International Airport (now BWI) to Kansas City Municipal on a United Boeing 720, a stubby version of the 707. We were on our way to Hawaii. There would be another 720 to San Francisco – then a Pan Am 707 to Honolulu. I remember the futuristic starburst side panels and the whistle of Pratt & Whitney turbojets. I never knew any differently. I’d never flown on a rumbly, rattly, noisy Douglas DC-6 or Lockheed Constellation, which were state-of-the-art for their time.

All I knew were jets.

At the dawn of the Jet Age, flying was so unlike what we experience today. Even in Coach, you were fed a meal with real silverware and glistening china complemented with a drink or coffee. It’s a wonder these classic jetliners ever got off the ground considering the weight carried in the galleys. People dressed up to go fly – in suits and ties, dresses, clean cut. The age of tee shirts and torn up jeans had not yet arrived. There were no fights in the cabin. People understood how to behave.

I can sit here and bemoan what we don’t have in the sky anymore, however, it is a tradeoff. Despite the cattle car approach to flying, we’re got it good. We can get there nonstop in all-jet service without the deafening hum of propellers, however, forget the continental breakfast and hot towels. Domestic airlines have put profits and stockholders ahead of customer service.

Flying is also a lot more affordable in 2024 than it was in 1960. Deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 got us cheaper fares and service to more and more destinations. However, economics has gotten us to where we are now. Airlines are in business to turn a profit. We are endlessly reminded of this while listening to our stomachs growling at cruise altitude.

The friendly skies aren’t so friendly anymore. Common decency in society expired ages ago. The flying public has forgotten how to be nice.

Tolerance has taken a vacation.

It has been said by journalists around the world Americans are being screwed by commerce and government. We put up with a lot more crap than the rest of the world, which would never put up with it. It would speak with its feet. Nowhere is this more prevalent then in the airline industry – only to be outdone by cable and satellite companies, which manage to find their way into our pockets more and more these days. There’s no real sense of fair play anymore. We really are getting the short end, and we choose to allow it.

Despite the state of our world these days, boomers have the benefit of great memories growing up in an age of jet travel and the magic of our youth so long ago. Gives us something nice to think about – and dream about – as we are falling asleep warm in our beds.