Flying in Its Glory Days: 22 Vintage Photos Captured Air Travel Scenes From Between the 1930s to 1950s

   

What did the glory days of air travel look like? These vintage photos below show just how glamorous flying was, with champagne, full-on sleeper beds, the works.

Waiter service aboard Imperial Airways 'Scylla' during its flight from London to Paris, circa 1935.
Passengers enjoying a drink and a game of cards in the cabin of an Imperial Airways plane in 1936.

 

Preparing lunch on the Imperial Airways aeroplane 'Scylla', 19 November 1936.

 

Day cabin of an Imperial Airways flying boat, most likely of the Short Empire class, in August 1936.

 

A sleeping berth on an Imperial Airways aircraft in March 1937.

 

A male flight attendant walks with his arms linked with two female flight attendants in front of a small plane in the 1940's.

 

Stewardess in Le Bourget (Seine-Saint-Denis), about 1945.

 

Baby travels by plane in New York In July 1945.

 

A Douglas DC-3 airliner of Eastern Airlines ('The Great Silver Fleet') seen through the window of a viewing gallery at an airport, circa 1945.

 

Air hostess Patricia Palley attends to passengers in the decorated cabin of a Pan-American air liner over the Atlantic on December 23, 1946.

 

19th January 1950: Trainee air hostess, Claire Swan, during a training session in a BOAC mock aircraft.

 

A female instructor stands at a chalkboard, pointing to a chalk diagram of an airplane while female students take notes at their desks during a stewardess training school, 1950.

 

Luggage being unloaded from airplane, circa 1950s.

 

Luggage being unloaded from airplane, circa 1950s.

 

Luggage being unloaded from airplane, circa 1950s.

 

A Pan American World Airways flight attendant preparing in-flight meals in the galley of an airliner, circa 1950.

 

A bus in the bus docks at New York's East Side Airlines Terminal. The docks are open on one side to permit exhaust fumes to escape, circa 1955.

 

Passengers checking in at New York's East Side Airlines Terminal, circa 1955.

 

Passengers checking in their baggage at New York's East Side Airlines Terminal, circa 1955.

 

Passengers checking in their baggage at New York's East Side Airlines Terminal, circa 1955.

 

New York's East Side Airlines Terminal which operates on a 24 hour basis to provide transportation to every flight leaving from the city's various airports, around 1955.

 

A TWA pilot and stewardess greets the passengers coming off the plane, ca.1950s, Cincinnati, Ohio.


(Photos: Getty Images, via The Huffington Post)