How things have changed. Or have they? It does really come down to the cost of living the good life even today! Go first class across the ocean today! Living life like you should and then go broke!
(Click on the pictures to see the entire shot. It's amazing!)
Very interesting article / pictures of commercial aviation from over 80 years ago…..Be sure to read the post script
FLYING THE ATLANTIC DURING THE LATE 1930's
What It Was Like Aboard A Pan-Am Clipper..
Clipper passengers took their meals at real tables, not their seats.
For most travelers in the 21st century, flying is a dreary experience,
full of inconvenience, indignity, and discomfort.
That wasn't the case in the late 1930s, when those with the money to afford
trans-oceanic flight got to take the Boeing Model 314, better known as the Clipper.
Even Franklin Roosevelt
used the plane, celebrating his 61st birthday on board.
Between 1938 and 1941, Boeing
built 12 of the jumbo planes for Pan American World Airways.
The Clipper had a range of 3,500 miles — enough to cross either the Atlantic
or Pacific, with room for 74 passengers onboard. Of course, modern aviation offers
an amazing first class experience (and it's a whole lot safer), but nothing in the air
today matches the romanticism of crossing the oceans in the famed Clipper.
The nickname Clipper came from an especially fast type of sailing ship used in the
19th century.
The ship analogy was appropriate,
as the Clipper landed on the water, not runways.
Here's a diagram of the different areas of the plane.
On the Pan Am flights, passengers
had access to dressing rooms and a dining salon that could be converted into a lounge or bridal suite.
The galley served up meals catered from four-star hotels.
If you want to sit at a table to eat with other people these days, you have to fly in a private jet.
There was room for a crew
of 10 to serve as many as 74 passengers.
On overnight flights, the 74 seats could be turned into 40 bunks for comfortable sleeping. The bunk beds came with curtains for privacy.
On the 24-hour flights across the Atlantic, crew members could conk out on
these less luxurious cots.
Unlike some modern jets that come with joysticks, the Clipper had controls that resembled car steering wheels.
Navigating across the oceans required more manpower in the air
The lavatory wasn't too fancy, but it did have a urinal — something you never see in today's commercial jets, where space is at a premium.
The ladies lounge had stools where female passengers could sit and do their makeup.
The Clipper made its maiden trans-Atlantic voyage on June 28, 1939.
But once the US entered World War II, the Clippers were pressed into service
to transport materials and personnel.
POSTSCRIPT:
Prior to WWII, the Japanese Military became very interested in the new Pratt & Whitney
radial engines that powered the Pan Am Clipper.
On a flight from San Francisco to China, a Clipper landed on Truk Lagoon to
be refueled by Japanese authorities.
Later, the Clipper was assumed lost over the Pacific.
Years later, it was revealed that the crew and passengers were arrested and murdered
by the Japanese.
The engines were retrieved and sent to Japan and the Clipper was sunk in deep water
off Truk Lagoon.
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