If you are a product of the post-war baby boom, you undoubtedly remember propellers and the popping and sputtering of large radial piston-powered airliners. Those of you old enough to remember the noise and the vibration of piston power surely remember the dawn of the Jet Age.
The Jet Age thrust the world into a new era of air travel where you could travel coast-to-coast in 4-5 hours at a mind-bending 600 mph at 35,000 feet. Travelers marveled at how smooth and quiet jets were at altitude at speeds approaching the sound barrier. Pan American World Airways was the first domestic carrier to jet across the Atlantic from New York to Paris with the Boeing 707 in 1958. Others swiftly followed – with American Airlines ushering in coast-to-coast 707 jet service in 1959.
It was a dreamy time for air travel.
My first memories of air travel were game-changing Boeing and Douglas jets in 1961-62 during my father’s reassignment to Hawaii for a two-year stint with the NSA on Oahu. Westbound were three Boeing jets – two United Airlines 720s and one Pan American 707 across the Pacific. Eastbound at the end of his tour were two Douglas DC-8s with Trans International (TIA) and United. As a footnote, the TIA DC-8 was the prototype – Ship 1 – N8008D – from Honolulu to Travis AFB, California. United got us from San Francisco to Baltimore with a DC-8 and a stop in Denver.
I remember the Jet Age quite well.
The “The Jet Age” wasn’t anything new at the cusp of the 1960s. This catchphrase dates back to the 1940s when jet power was reserved for the military. In due course, Britain put the flying public high in the sky with the DeHavilland Comet in 1949. However, the Comet’s success would be short-lived, when a series of accidents made the public skittish about jet travel and the Comet was grounded. Although DeHavilland redesigned the Comet with the Comet 4, its tarnished reputation never recovered. The Comet would be passed up by Boeing, Douglas, and Convair in the U.S.
The success of jet travel made possible by the “Big Three” was no less than remarkable. Boeing was first with the 707, Douglas Aircraft with the DC-8, and Convair with the 880 and 990. The Convair 880 offered blazing speed, with its record-setting delivery flight to Delta Air Lines from San Diego to Miami in 3 hours, 31 minutes, and 54 seconds. The new Convair jet would enter service with Delta in May of 1960 between Houston and New York City.
The 880’s great success would be short-lived, flattened by the Arab Oil Embargo and higher fuel prices in the mid-1970s. The Convair jets hauled 80 passengers and were darned fast when fuel was cheap. Convair’s 880/990 General Electric CJ-805 engines burned a lot of kerosene. The Convair jets went to the desert never to be seen again.
Boeing and Douglas didn’t waste any time bringing jet service to smaller communities with the 727, 737, and the DC-9. The British responded with the BAC-111. Somewhere in between were turboprops like the Lockheed L-188 Electra, the Viscount, Fokker F-27 and the Fairchild FH-227, Convair 580 and 640, and a host of others that brought jet power to the propeller.
The 1960s was an age of “Pie In The Sky” where the only way was up. Juan Trippe, founder and CEO of Pan American, came to Boeing CEO Bill Allen with an idea – The Jumbo Jet – that could haul 450 passengers across the globe and generate a lot of revenue for the company.
Pan Am pioneered jet service across the Atlantic and Pacific with the 707 and 720 in the 1960s. By 1965, Trippe concluded it was time for a bigger, bolder statement in air travel and he wanted it right away. Anytime Bill Allen’s phone rang with a call from Trippe, he instinctively knew he would be presented with an enormous challenge. Trippe was there with a grand vision. The Boeing 747 flew for the first time in 1969 and entered service with Pan Am in 1970. Douglas and Lockheed stepped up with the twin-aisle, supersized DC-10 and L-1011 shortly thereafter.
So, whatever happened to all this “Pie In The Sky” chatter of the 1960s? I think of this whenever I fly today and they throw me a bag of pretzels and a drink. Deregulation in 1978 was a game changer and it enabled more and more people to fly. You could fly anywhere and get jet service from nearly any small community. This level of service was nice for a while.
The economics of flying have changed considerably in recent years – especially in the wake of COVID. When you arrive at the ticket counter, bag fees, meals you pay for, and all this nickel-dime stuff has become tiresome and a bitter subject for the flying public. Flying isn’t so cheap anymore. Add to this a shortage of new airframes and greedy unrelenting investors and you have real-world issues for those who fly. Flying isn’t enjoyable anymore.
Whenever I fly, I think of the Jet Age some 60 years ago, I think of getting there fast and taking it slow along with the pleasant flying experience in between. It was a wonderful time to be alive.
Boomer Journey... 
I remember getting “dressed up” to fly. Business attire was still the deal in the 90s. Then came intrusive and time consuming bag checks, briefcase checks, shoe checks. It suddenly made more sense to fly in your pajamas. Judging by the terminal foot traffic PJs are a real hit. Dave Barry riffed on this in a novel, where he said, paraphrased, upstarirs they’re opening laptops and checking salesmen’s briefcases and mom’s diaper bag while downstairs nuclear warheads and crates of machine guns zip down the conveyor to get tossed on the same flight. I flew solo, turbo prop from Joplin to OKC with a stopover in Tulsa. No jetways. But the Stews were nice and pinned on a nice set of plastic wings along with an “unaccompanied” sign. I suppose so someone would watch me in the even of an airborne kidnapper.
LikeLike
Flying has changed significantly. Not only has attire deteriorated – so has human behavior. People fighting over seating, overhead stowage, etc. Flight attendants being beaten. It is appalling.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s the story of the entire culture. Flying is a microcosm.
LikeLike