Reply With QuoteThe Breitling generation
How times change!
https://www.historydefined.net/amazi...age-of-travel/
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
The Breitling generation
Having just got off a London late night bus I can safely say the bus is more comfortable than modern economy class travel let alone the golden years.
My mother worked at Croydon Airport when it was the main airport for London.
It was pre-Golden Age without doubt.
She told of queues -just like at a bus stop- on the tarmac with fingerpost signs saying " Le Touquet; Frankfurt; Brussels" etc, with passengers embarking using flights of stairs on wheels. The passengers would follow an airport operative walking in a crocodile across the tarmac; only the long-distance flights would have the luxury of motor transport to their aircraft bay.
The back of the plane has gotten worse but the front of the plane on long haul flights, where flatbeds and private suites are de rigeur has definitely gotten much better as is the fact you don't have to suffer other passenger's cigarette smoke throughout a flight
That's because the number of smokers has reduced drastically, in part thanks to the current no smoking in public places policy.Originally Posted by ryanb741
I flew multiple times a year throughout my childhood and young adulthood and never found it an issue (when I started smoking I was smoking the pipe therefore never smoked on board then.
I cannot remember anyone ever raising it as an issue before the late seventies-early eighties.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
I'm not exactly jet set, but the last flight I went on that allowed smoking was to Egypt 20 years ago. Is that still a thing?
I think the only airline that still allows smoking is SAUDIA
Sorry to clarify what I mean is that smoking has been phased out on flights over the last 20 years or so which is a huge improvement vs the 'golden age', and not that you can still smoke at the back of planes as you can't any more
I like the photo where "passengers recline" - with plenty of room to do so, and without needing to have a punch-up with the people in the seats behind!
I have been in the aircraft coatings business for a long time. We supply coatings for the cabin interior as well as the rest. Anyhoo in the late 80s early 90s when we made the paint for the baggage bin covers we used to make the batches progressively more tobacco coloured down the length of the aisle so that any repairs were a match to the progressively darker/browner shade of the interior towards the smoking section.
I can't believe that is true, surely?
This was covered recently on Air Crash Investigation
Sent through the ether by diddling with radio waves
Saudi Arabian Airlines banned smoking in 2012. It's a decent enough airline as long as you don't mind no booze.
Thought as much, found it hard to believe any airline allowed smoking these days.
My Dad's first job was as an apprentice carburettor mechanic on aircraft at Croydon airport.
On my first flights from Gatwick we had to walk across the tarmac to the plane and the same abroad. Finger jettys were unheard of.
Cheers,
Neil.
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