Flying In Style: The Glamorous History Of Air Travel

Cost of Flying

For the most part, in the old days, planes were only for the wealthy. Flying in the old days was much more expensive. Even taking inflation into account, flying today is about 50% cheaper per mile than the late 1970s. It was around this same time period, that airlines, as we know them today, began to arise.

There was no free alcohol handed out and the planes were designed to fit as many passengers as possible instead of offering comfort first and offering a ride in what was essentially a luxury vehicle in the sky. These days you still don’t get that extreme level of luxury unless you’re willing to shell out the big bucks, but general plane rides are relatively inexpensive.

Odds of Crashing

These days when you board an airplane, the likelihood of you getting into plane crash are very slim. Thankfully, plan technology and engineering is something has improved greatly over the years. However back in the ’50s and ’60s, crashes were far more common, there was basically a five times greater chance of being killed back then than there is now.

That wasn’t the only issue with safety on a flight. You also had to worry about turbulence. Now a rough patch of turbulence is quite scary, but in the 1950s, it could literally kill you – particularly due to lower ceilings and the seat belt designs were not the greatest. The divider between first class and economy used to be made of glass. Can you imagine that?