What It Was Really Like To Fly During The Golden Age Of Travel

When we think about the Golden Age of Flying--the glory years of Pan Am and the Concorde in the 1950s and 1960s, before flight became cheap with the rise of the jumbo jet--we imagine a colorful, lavish era in which our every comfort and requirement is catered to. Gone are the inconveniences and annoyances of modern travel: the cramped seats, the dismissive stewardesses, the long security lines, and so on. Instead, we think of a vintage airline brochure come to life.

But was it really so great to fly 50 years ago? To find out, we asked Guillaume de Syon, a professor at Pennsylvania's Albright College and an expert on aviation history. Although there were many benefits of flying in the 1950s and 1960s, de Syon says, the reality was far different than you might expect. In fact, once you know what flying during the so-called Golden Age was really like, you might prefer a jaunt on easyJet.