Glamour in the Skies: Vintage Air Travel Photos

With the long lines, TSA pat-downs and luggage restrictions that come with air travel today, it may be hard to think of a time when flying was glamorous and thrilling. But it was. As air travel surpassed ocean liners as the predominant mode of crossing the globe, jet aircraft eliminated the need to spend weeks at sea, but also took on the prestige of ships that crossed the ocean from the 1890s to the 1950s.

View the slideshow above to see scenes from the glamorous skies: spacious private suites, gourmet meals and smiling service, enjoyed by jet-setting celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles. But what was the golden age of travel really like?

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"In the 1950s and 1960s, travel was a quieter, more personal experience," says Linda Wischmeyer, a travel industry vet for 50 years and former president of Intrav, a private jet tour company that specialized in around-the-world journeys. “Someone would help you with your bags, greet you by name, and have your favorite drink waiting for you whether it was a martini or a glass of iced tea. You could get up and talk with other passengers; it was more like a club car than a cattle car."

"Things were comparatively more luxurious in the 1950s, but it's also true that fares in those days were extremely expensive by today's standards," Patrick Smith, an airline pilot and author of Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel, told weather.com. "I was sitting in economy class recently: I had roughly as much leg and elbow room as I would have had on a plane 30 years ago, except I also had inflight WiFi, seatback video with a hundred movies to choose from, and reasonably decent food. All for a surprisingly affordable fare." 

Traveling with a family was also much tougher then, according to Kelly Merritt, author of The Everything Family Guide to Budget Travel, who has interviewed dozens of multigenerational families about air travel.

"They remember traveling for more than 24 hours having to hold older children on their lap," says Merritt of a testimonial in the Smithsonian's "America by Air" online exhibition, which details the history of passenger air travel, including propeller airlines and the onset of the jet age. "There was no escaping the cigarette smoke and it was super noisy... but they had such gratitude for the ability to travel that way. They didn't take it for granted like we do so often today."

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