Have A Good Day

As a teenager, I was into aviation, hung out at airports, and collected postcards of airplanes. The Boeing 747, the jumbo jet, was the obvious crown jewel. Seeing one, or receiving a postcard of one, brought a jolt of joy.

The Atlantic has an article about the Boeing 747 that revealed some details I didn’t know. The 747 was originally built with cargo in mind: with the pilots on the upper deck, the nose could be opened to front-load the containers. Since supersonic flight was all the rage in the 60s, Boeing believed that would be the destiny of a big, slow plane. When the 747 was used mostly for passengers, airlines had all kinds of fancy ideas for what to do with the space. Very different from the squeezed-like-sardines concepts they use today.

The article also shows why modern journalism can be so tedious. The writer tried hard to produce the everything-gets-worse narrative that the media (and selfish politicians) love so much.

But while the golden age of flying in the 70s was lavish, with jumbos offering space, bars, and lounges, better safety, and the affordability of flights today are certainly an improvement.