Posted on 09/15/2024 6:32:29 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
My first flight: Braniff airlines. Love Field in Dallas to Hobby airport in Houston. 1968.
And, this thread also discusses first flights, and mine was on a United Convair cv_240. Just a kid, it was 1954, and I loved every bump and wiggle (known as "air pockets" at the time) of the flight. Other passengers? Many were airsick.
I knew a Linda Foster who was one of the first round the world Pan Am flight attendants back in the early 70’s. She had fond memories of that job.
I realize that this is just a travel publication but still any standard of accuracy would cause one to state that PanAm remains dead as a doornail, and this trip is per a licensing of the brand. Doesn’t take away from the fact this sounds pretty remarkable, but it needed to be mentioned
My first flight: Our family flew from Portland to Seattle for the 1962 World’s Fair. Then my first train journey was coming home from there.
I was 7 years old, so I have no idea what airline we took. I think the aircraft was a Boeing 707 but couldn’t swear to that.
I worked for Howard Johnson’s, where you could eat once Kubrick’s Pan-Am hypersonic scramjet orbital flyer got you to the space station. Not entirely gone, as the name is used on a hotel chain. Not the same company though.
My first flight...as mentioned in post 16....took place in March of 1969.
Looks cool. It kind of is a return to Pan Am’s roots. Travel in the 30s, 40s, even 50s was really only for the rich. If you look at any documentaries about it, the food and service were great. People dressed very nicely and it looked great. But tickets were the equivalent of $10,000 or more so hardly anybody who was even middle class flew. That really started to change in the 1960s with bigger jets like the 707.
I saw a couple documentaries on Pan Am recently. They never really could replace their founder and CEO Juan Tripp. He was a genius. There was nobody who could fill his shoes.
my first flight was on a PSA 727 from burbank to san diego in 1968.
I never flew on Braniff, but I remember their catchy commercials on TV.
“Everybody’s talking about Braniff, you’ll love flying Braniff style.”
“Everybody’s talking about Braniff, you’ll love flying Braniff style.”
And people used to dress up when they travelled by air.
Now, American society (or the lack thereof) has turned airliners into flying Greyhound buses.
My first flight was on a DC-3, PSC to the old Felts Field in Spokane (still there and operating but not for scheduled flights). Oh, and I came down with chickenpox while on the flight. Then a couple decades later I replicated the flight — minus the chickenpox — in a Piper Tripacer, more than once.
flying Greyhound buses... YES.
My wife and I flew from Orlando to Houston back in May.
It was like riding on the Snoop Dog movie “Soul Plane”.
Ghetto airlines.
I only flew aboard a DC-3 once, around 1980, returning from some northern California fires on a Forest Service flight. It was a very rough night flight with lots of thunderstorms, and I think I was the only one on the plane who didn’t puke. I’d like to ride in a DC-3 again under better conditions.
And the military version is the C-47 which I think was mentioned earlier in the thread.
From 1984-1988 I was an air traffic controller in Berlin working aircraft in and out of the Berlin corridors. Because of the airspace status only British, French and US aircraft could fly in the corridors. The British flew British Airways, France used Air France and the US flew Pan AM and TWA. Pan Am’s call sign was “Clipper.”
Saw a documentary once on the Pan Am Clippers.....they actually were supported by the US military who wanted their ‘routes’ and way stations, hotels and logistics chain.
If the US had an excuse for southern Pacific runways, way stations, hotels, supplies, etc. they could easily be taken over and used during war time....
Coogans Bluff
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