Early Flying Days

In his May, 1933, National Geographic Magazine article, Flying, Gilbert Grosvenor writes, "Less than twenty years ago, air-passenger service was unknown.  A pioneer flying boat carried sight-seers on scheduled trips over the 17 miles between Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida, for a few weeks early in 1914.  So far as Federal records show, that was America's first regular air-travel line," (p. 585).  That's interesting to know!

I had no idea how very long the plane flights were back in 1933.  "Between New York and Los Angeles the air passenger schedule is less than 25 hours eastbound and 29 hours westbound, as compared with 3 days and 11 hours by rail, (p. 587).  I'll remember that the next time I make a long journey to the west coast!

Odd fact:  in the early days of flying, "Airplane Crossing" signs could be seen across roads in airports.

There even was a Navy aircraft carrier, "The Lexington," in that era.

The author gives many statistics of every aspect of air travel.  There's only one area I noticed in which we have not made progress since then: food service.  "Cooking is done in the air on the larger seaplanes.  On the land-liners, food, already prepared, is taken aboard and kept hot until mealtime.  On some lines planes halt for meals," (p. 617).  These days, you nearly have to be flying across a major ocean to get a free meal!  Two weeks ago, when I returned from Boston, I noticed that the price one had to pay for snacks had increased even more!  At least passengers could still get a free (non-alcoholic) drink!

FYI: "What a miraculous change since 200 boy riders - using 500 horses - carried mail before 1840 from New York to New Orleans at the dizzying rate of 14 miles per hour!" (p. 618).

Progress certainly was made rapidly in aviation!  Only several years ago in these pages of the National Geographic, I was reading that there was no air travel at night.  In 1933, it was commonplace.

Are you old enough to know what a "Pullman" was?  Are you old enough to have traveled in a Pullman?  That was a passenger railroad car, slow but very comfortable.  "Of the 530,000 who bought air tickets in 1932, as against some 30,000,000 who rode the Pullmans, by far the great majority flew to save time," (p. 625).  In the last year, there have been 649 million air passengers in the United States alone.  In 2013, Amtrak (the only rail service for people!) carried over 31 million passengers!  What a turn-around!

There was a photograph of a new plane being tested. "Shaped like some queer insect, with retractable landing gear, this new all-metal plane is designed to cruise at 200 miles, with a top speed of 235 miles, an hour.  It has capacity for eight passengers, mail, and baggage," (photo caption, p. 626). What was new to me on the trip to Boston was that there were several vacant seats in the front of the large plane and the flight attendant asked if two passengers from the back of the plane would move to the front "to balance the load."  I had never before seen that.

Mr. and Mrs. Grosvenor traveled many miles and "Although we were in the air only 100 hours, we derived a more realistic picture of the geography of the country, of the relationship of great rivers, mountain ranges, plains, cities, and islands than years of travel otherwise afforded," (p. 628).  I couldn't agree more!

In the photos of passengers in this article, I noticed the absence of seat belts!  I will look forward to reading about those and other safety features of planes in the articles to come!

The author concluded this lengthy (45-page) article, "From the days of Lindbergh's stupendous venture, and Byrd's thrilling flights, we have seen air traffic become strong, dependable factor in American business," (p. 630).  Amen to that!