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United Airlines in 1962: From Pistons to Jet Power

May 2, 2012 at 11:39 AM | by | Comments (0)

Look what we found! Why, it's a June 1962 edition of United's old in-flight magazine, Mainliner. This week, we'll be flipping through the pages and learning a thing or two about the United of the dawn of the jet age.

Oh, the Jet Age. When this magazine was published, the aviation industry was in the midst of replacing piston-powered planes with sleek new jets, like Caravelles and Boeing 727s. Still, the swap wasn't happening like the flick of a switch, so United obviously felt the need to reassure their flyers that being placed on a piston jet was perfectly fine.

Our favorite paragraph:

And the DC-6 and DC-7 of today are vastly improved airplanes over what they were a few years ago. Creative maintenance at United's San Francisco base has virtually rebuilt them again and again. Minor flaws have been corrected and engine reliability has been greatly increased. Radar has been installed on all of them and the interiors of the DC-6s have been completely renovated. Altogether there have been over 2,700 modifications on the DC-6 and 1,400 on the DC-7 since their introduction.

These days, that would have been worded much differently. Would you want to fly in a plane treated to "creative maintenance?" We bet not.

Curious to have a better look at the article? View a larger version here.

[Image scan: Jaunted]

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