The Golden Age of air travel.

robertxxx

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/traveling-in-a-boeing-747-in-the-1970s-was-pretty-damn-1504637666

afatbollix

When fuel was cheap....

But were these actual layout designs? or just done up by Boeing?

As Airbus but gyms and hot tubs into mock up A380s..

L1011

afatbollix wrote: »

When fuel was cheap....

But were these actual layout designs? or just done up by Boeing?

As Airbus but gyms and hot tubs into mock up A380s..

Mix of both - most of the upper deck images are real. Before the Stretched Upper Deck option came around (and the 747-300) the upper deck was small enough that it did often get used as a lounge.

Locker10a

I recall watching a program about Pan Am before, and about the 747! It interviewed some Pam Am flight attendants from the 60's and 70's and they said that the 747 was what brought an end to the so called golden age of air travel! They explained that the jumbo jets meant more passengers and a lower passenger/crew ratio and thus from when the 747 was introduced service standards began to slip, it was also the beginning of mass air travel and the experience lost its intimacy and exclusivity !! I thought it was an interesting theory especially from those who experienced the transition!

SpaceTime

I actually think the golden age is now.
For those of us in Western Europe and North America in particular, aviation has become ubiquitous.

I know we all love to hate the low cost, low frills model but the reality is that it's opened up much of the world to billions of people.

It was classier 30+ years ago but, if you want to experience that just book business class or higher. It's still available and the costs relative to inflation are similar to the old days.

It's a terrible shame heavy security makes it more of an ordeal than it should be but, it's pretty amazing that I can just hop on a flight with an overnight bag and be in a whole host of European cities in a couple of hours Max from most irish airports at pretty decent prices.

I mean, I can actually just go to London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels etc from Cork and not really have to think about it that much.

I can even hop over to NYC, Boston or Toronto without breaking the bank.

That's what I call a golden age!

Strumms

We are living in the golden age of air travel... Right now... Whatever about silver service, Concorde and 300 punts return to London... I hopped on a jet with 1 weeks notice over the new year to Amsterdam for little or nothing and was there in just over an hour.... We can sometimes Glamorise what went before us but as far as price, frequency, speed, destination, airline options, safety etc go.... I'll take now over then...

SpaceTime

Not to mention smokey cabins of 30+ years ago. Unimaginable!
Although everything used to stink of cigarette smoke not too many years ago.

djmcr

Locker10a wrote: »

I recall watching a program about Pan Am before, and about the 747! It interviewed some Pam Am flight attendants from the 60's and 70's and they said that the 747 was what brought an end to the so called golden age of air travel! They explained that the jumbo jets meant more passengers and a lower passenger/crew ratio and thus from when the 747 was introduced service standards began to slip, it was also the beginning of mass air travel and the experience lost its intimacy and exclusivity !! I thought it was an interesting theory especially from those who experienced the transition!

And the FA's had to start doing a bit of work..

Stinicker

Flying long haul now is less stressful compared to the old days I'd imagine, you can go from Dublin to Australia in two flights, before you would have have maybe 4 to 5 flights and it was incredibly expensive.

Before:
Ireland > UK > Middle East > Bahrain > Singapore > Australia

Now:
Ireland> U.A.E > Anywhere in the eastern hemisphere really except New Zealand which still involves the 2nd stop over.

Also back in the day there was terrible I.F.E which consisted of an old projector or else a book. IFE on modern jets is really good and with iPads etc. it is even becoming redundant.

Modern planes like the A380 have taken economy class to new levels in Long Hual. Planes like the 777-300ER in the 10-a-breast config represent the antithesis of this however. The 747-400 ushered in a new era but the A380 just takes this and makes it that bit better. Obviously alot depends on the airlines you also fly with but from an aviation safety and creature comfort point of view; things are pretty good now.

Flights less than 7 hours can be tolerated on the likes of Ryanair anything more needs a little bit more space and IFE etc. to make it durable. Having flown 16.5hours non stop on the A380 in economy class I can say that from an economy class point of view things are pretty good now. Avoid Boeing 777's and you'll be pretty good on longhaul.

murphym7

Well, avoid 10 abreast 777 certainly, 9 across is fine. Have flown BA 777 loads of times in all classes, economy at 9 abreast is grand. I would not consider getting on an emirates 777 10 abreast, that's a piss take.

I would never advise people to avoid all 777's, that's just a bit silly really.

brandon_flowers

Singapore 777 9 across is about as comfortable as it gets in economy anywhere in the world. I have to say though that there is still a certain aura about air travel in Asia at least, maybe not a golden age though. JAL can charge $25k for a first class ticket while BA would charge $7/8k for the same. The Japanese will still buy the JAL ticket because its a better status. Koreans have a very similar outlook.

mickdw

Golden age - Concorde.
To be able to do from the 70s what is not possible now.

Strumms

mickdw wrote: »

Golden age - Concorde.
To be able to do from the 70s what is not possible now.

I disagree. Concorde was 1 aircraft, few were made and only those who were extremly affluent could afford to use Concorde on the handful of routes it served. I'll happily go with NOW for the reasons I and others outlined.

Concorde was a very cool aircraft granted and an engineering feat and somewhat before it's time. The only thing that makes Corncorde or another super sonic aircraft not possible today is economics, nothing else the technology is there and some.

SpaceTime

Enjoy it while it's available.

If peak oil happens in our lifetimes and the aviation industry hasn't found alternative ways of fueling planes, it's going to be a luxury again.

Hopefully, they'll come up with biofuel alternatives and cars will be using electrical energy mostly not derived from oil. So at least we could keep flying at decent prices

B00056718

SpaceTime wrote: »

Enjoy it while it's available.

If peak oil happens in our lifetimes and the aviation industry hasn't found alternative ways of fueling planes, it's going to be a luxury again.

Hopefully, they'll come up with biofuel alternatives and cars will be using electrical energy mostly not derived from oil. So at least we could keep flying at decent prices

It's being looked at already
http://www.virgin.com/travel/world-first-low-carbon-aviation-fuel-be-developed-virgin-atlantic