It was on this day in 1959 that the first transcontinental commercial jet flight took place, from Los Angeles to New York. Although the Wright brothers had successfully flown a plane back in 1903, air travel took a long time to catch on with the American public. Most people considered airplanes unsafe and possibly just a fad, so there wasnt much work put into improving aircraft design, which just reinforced the publics skepticism. Although World War I improved the design of planes for military use, the public associated them with warfare and bombing. For decades, airplanes were used mainly for military or for transporting mail. Charles Lindberghs trans-Atlantic flight kindled public interest, but regular fatal accidents kept them away. It wasnt until after World War II and the development of jet aircrafts (which were larger and safer) that commercial flights became a widely accepted form of transportation. American Airlines Flight 2, which touched down in New York at 4 p.m. on this day in 1959, had the atmosphere of a party. There was a celebratory cocktail party before boarding, and attractive flight attendants in heels served cocktails throughout the flight, so almost all of the passengers were tipsy. Passengers were offered food like fresh Maine lobsters, filet mignon, and macaroon ice cream balls with brandied apricot sauce. The flight was a mix of regular people and celebrities, including the 81-year-old poet Carl Sandburg, who was apparently quite drunk. In an essay he wrote later about the flight, he said: You look out of the window at the waves of dark and light clouds looking like ocean shorelines, and you feel as if you are floating away in this pleasantly moving room, like the basket hanging from the balloon you saw with a visiting circus when you were a boy. [...] You have let your mind wander again, and you wake up now in this room where you move through rain and come out of it into a clear blue sky with a cloudland below you, and you say to yourself, My, thats purty to look at.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 15:10:28 +0000
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