And the streamlined locomotives further down the page are pretty sweet too.

Life isn’t all about going fast.

Plus ca change…

For most travelers, their mode of transportation is simply a means to get somewhere, not an “experience.” Whatever method that the majority of people travel tends to become “cattle class,” for the simple reason that most people aren’t willing to pay more. Back when most people crossed the ocean in ships, most of the passengers traveled in steerage/third class. The people who are willing to pay extra for leg-room and more attentive cabin crew are up there in first class and they pay out the nose for it. The rest of us CHOOSE to pay less because we’re willing to be crammed like sardines to save money.

Bringing the cost of air travel down to where it could compete with trains on a cost basis is largely due to two changes. The first was the jet engine. Faster aircraft are more productive, jets require much less maintenance, and jet fuel is cheaper. (although much more of it is required). The second is the deregulation of the airline industry. Back when the CAB had a cosy relation with the airlines, planes were emptier, but ticket prices were MUCH higher and airlines competed on the basis of ameneties because they weren’t allowed to compete on price.

It is *much* more pleasant to hop into a high-performance auto and drive from hither to yon — or even take a train — than it is to be crammed into a seat apparently designed by a one-armed, 4-foot tall engineer, after being x-rayed, made to remove your shoes and dispose of your shampoo, forced to wait for hours in line, having your wallet mined like a last-gasp gold strike, fed peanuts (if that), seated next to a screaming baby, all the while worrying if some poor bastard with the same name as you has managed to get on our out-of-control government’s “no-fly” list, leaving you stranded at your next connection.

Luckily, I’m in a position where I can make the choice to do my flying on four wheels. For those who can’t… well, you have my sympathy. I know it’s perfectly OK these days to pay for a masochistic experience, but there’s no safe word with the airlines — and if it isn’t consensual all the way, I’m not playing, bitch.

You got that right. I would rather take a bus than fly. The whacked security inspections and the airlines’ chicken-poo policies (PAY for my checked luggage??) and the cramming of hundreds of people into a space that is comfortable for half that many… Unfortunately, air travel is a necessary evil.

Hey, HERE’s an idea: an airline becomes upscale. Tickets cost, say, %50 more, but you get to sit in seats with room, and your baggage is free. Fly Delta cheaper if you want, but get the cattle treatment. I’d pony up the extra in a heartbeat.

Nowadays, the same air is constantly recirculated throughout the trip, although it is filtered. Far more likely to catch someone else’s cold than you would ever catch lung cancer.

Yes, but $157 in 1939 is about the same as $2400 today. For what looks in the article to be a one-way ticket. You can get a one-way ticket from NY to SF these days for under $400 depending on how early you book it – which in comparable 1939 dollars is about $26.

Sometimes it’s tough to get a grasp on just how much inflation has been an impact on things. There are the old Grampa Simpson jokes about candy bars costing a penny and penny candy costing a half-penny, but when you see that $400 today has the buying power of $26 back in the 40s, it’s kind of stunning.

To be fair, in 1939, you probably would have been one of those smokers, and thus wouldn’t have to “deal with them”.

My back can’t handle that, so we aren’t going.

Meals, Limo, recliners… Someone needs to create a throwback airline. Sure it’ll cost more (less seats), but you’d be likely to pay for a cab or parking at the airport anyway so the limousine cost is basically null. At least you’d get a nice ride after dealing with ‘security’.

It looks nice :)

The air in the back of a typical jet is almost certainly fresher than the air in your home or office, if freshness is measured by the rate at which it’s replaced by new outside air, or, for that matter, by microbe count.

Sure, air travel is cheaper and easier, but like fast food, cheap and convenient isn’t a mark of quality.

The real sadness is how the customers today are treated like cattle and not human beings of any actual value. Between nickel and dime fees, cramped seating and the stage comedy that is airport security, flying is pretty dehumanizing.

I travel by train whenever I can. Yeah, it takes longer but I arrive feeling like a person, not a pretzel.

It’s going to be interesting to see how airlines evolve in the next decade or so, with climate regulation and rising fuel prices, air travel is going to get more and more expensive. Maybe we’ll see a return to this kind of high-end flying for all…who can afford it.

Of interest is the fact that zeppelins traveled so close to the ocean’s surface, and were provided with so many pairs of bored eyeballs, that it wasn’t till the second generation of ocean-observation satellites that we had coverage of the ocean’s surface in that degree of detail. Much of what we know today about surface currents, marine mammal migration patterns, etc. were derived from zeppelin travel.

Older airplanes are loud as hell inside. And wobble a lot like a boat. Not the best thing for those who get seasick easily.

Flying Space-A on a C5 Galaxy was a different story. All the seats face the rear because the military knows that positioning is more survivable in case of a non-powered landing. One also has leg room and a reclining seat that just does exactly that. The upper-deck passenger cabin isn’t heated, but they do give the passengers wool blankets and real pillows. When I flew from Oki to the states on a C5, I slept like a baby. That is not really possible when done commercial, either now or in our grandparent’s time. They had a lot of engine and prop noise back then.

(Well, not really. It did not feel safe then.)

You say the air is canned and recirculated constantly in modern airliners – not true. Fresh air is constantly compressed and forced into the fuselage, and the fuselage vents air to the atmosphere. Shut off the engines/compressors and the plane will depressurize within a few minutes in most cases.

You obviously never flew in the days of smoking flights, or are perhaps a frustrated smoker. Either way, sorry, that comment is full of hot, stale air.

Airliners have become 10 times safer since just 1970. I’d have to guess that flying is now at least 100 times safer than it was in 1939.

Although as Mythbusters pointed out, backwards-facing seats increase your chances of getting impaled.

If someone invents a passenger transport blimp that could reproduce that experience (minus propeller noise), I might be tempted to try it.