Tag: retro travel

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The Flight That Brought a Girl Home to Become Queen Elizabeth II

May 14, 2012 at 12:34 PM | by | Comment (1)

Listen to The Beatles' "Back in the USSR" today, and pay special attention to those first couple lines:

Flew in from Miami Beach. BOAC. Didn't get to bed last night. On the way the paper bag was on my knee. Man, I had a dreadful flight.

BOAC. British Overseas Airways Corporation. This airline still exists today, believe it or not; with rebranding, you'll recognize them as British Airways. BA wasn't just a favorite airline of the Beatles, as you'll see in these photos sent to us by British Airways.

That is Queen Elizabeth II arriving at London-Heathrow on February 7, 1952, the date of the Proclamation of her accession to the throne, following the death of her father, King George VI. She was in Kenya with her husband, beginning a tour that would stretch from Kenya to Australia and New Zealand, when she became Queen overnight, necessitating this BOAC return flight to London.

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United Airlines in 1962: Society Soars to 30,000 Feet

May 4, 2012 at 12:20 PM | 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.

Yesteday we introduced you to a Mr. Rotunno, professional photographer with a single beat: Chicago's airports. Rotunno captured the arrivals of famous actors, actresses, political figures, musicians and more with his lens. He was the modern-day LAX paparazzo, just more distinguished and at ORD/MDW.

Today we see a few of the famous faces Mike photographed, featured here on the last page of Mainliner.

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United Airlines in 1962: Flashbulbs for Celebrity Arrivals

May 3, 2012 at 9:41 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.

Thanks to recent events, flyers have learned that airlines actually take seriously the privacy of their customers' itineraries. This means that airlines aren't (or *shouldn't*) be leaking celebrity travel information to the press, or even dropping names without express consent or endorsement.

In the 1960s, however, things were very different. Celebrities wanted to be greeted at the airport by adoring fans, most of the time, and airlines wanted to talk about it. There were official photographers whose job it was to simply get the A-listers to smile for the birdie, conveniently in front of the airline's logo or fin. They were men like Mike Rotunno, profiled here in the back of United's Mainliner.

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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.

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United Airlines in 1962: Frequent Flyers in the Space Race

May 1, 2012 at 11:29 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.

Just as in any modern in-flight magazine, ads make up a good percentage of the content in this 1962 edition. This one, from National Car Rental is the most compelling, as it both features the early airline business traveler and looks as though it could've been made by Mad Men's Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

The happy customer featured is Paul Stancik, Purchasing Agent for Motorola's Military Electronics Division. The caption notes that he flies an average of 100,000 miles every year—a number today's frequent flyers would laugh at, but meant serious commitment to jet travel way back then.

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United Airlines in 1962: Opening Pancake Shops at O'Hare

April 30, 2012 at 2:03 PM | 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.

What better place to start than with United's headquarters in Chicago? In this issue of Mainliner, United profiles their hometown airports: O'Hare and Midway, though O'Hare's modern architecture is obviously the focus of the pride. They've just opened some Mies van der Rohe-designed terminals, after all, and Chicago is only beginning to make its mark as the "Crossroads of the Nation" in terms of jet travel.

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Miami Airport Still Reminisces About the 1920s

April 26, 2012 at 10:14 AM | by | Comments (0)

We've already told you about the awesome dog paintings at Miami International Airport, but there's another exhibition at MIA we consider a must-see, and it's one that's been there for, like, ever.

This one's called The Roaring Twenties and Thirties in Miami Beach (they had us at roaring) and it's a collection of vintage photographs by Claude Matlack, who worked in Miami and Miami Beach between 1918 and 1942. During the twenties, his lens was focused on the beauties of the beach, and the gents who hung around them in matching dorky bathing suits.

The series on display, which comes from the Historical Museum of South Florida, is located at MIA's Central Terminal E, level 2, just before and just past the security checkpoint.

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United Airlines in 1953: For Men Only?

April 9, 2012 at 5:33 PM | by | Comments (0)

Most people know that Hugh Hefner's Playboy empire got its start in Chicago, and the opening of the first Playboy Club came in 1960. Before this, however, Chicago was still a mecca for men. Real men. Steak-devouring, card-playing, hat-wearing, broad-shouldered men who made things happen. They came for business and pleasure, and United wanted to be the airline to get them between Chicago and New York.

Via our friend @vivekmaya, we find that the blog The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit has uncovered a vintage ad that proves United once attempted to create a gentleman's club in the sky.

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So You Want an Airplane Seat? Better Try Restoration Hardware's 'Aviator' Series

April 2, 2012 at 7:49 PM | by | Comments (0)

Stick this to your Pinterest boards: Restoration Hardware has a whole collection of furniture inspired by retro aviation. We're talking World War-era steel and rivets and distressed leather. It's Amelia Earhart style and though we can't imagine it'd be great to outfit an entire room with the pieces, a single item here or there would be so awesome.

View the whole collection here. Prices range from $675 for an ottoman (but it's some ottoman) to $7,290 for a full leather sofa with chaise. Personally, we're already counting our pennies to get Jaunted HQ outfitted with the "1950s Copenhagen Spitfire Chair, a replica of the classic Arne Jacobsen "Egg" chair done up in antique ebony or slate leather, and backed by aluminum plates mimicking the structure of a vintage aircraft.

We know that serious aviation geeks seek out actual airplane seats for conversation pieces, but really—no one wants to sit in those in the best of times. Just go this wrote and enjoy the interior design envy when you finally get around to throwing that Howard Hughes-theme cocktail shindig. Oh, and invite us?

[Photo: Restoration Hardware]

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'Mad Men' and the Case of Mohawk Airlines

March 27, 2012 at 4:55 PM | by | Comment (1)

Raise your hand if hearing the dah-na dah-na dah-na opening sequence of the AMC series Mad Men makes you feel good. Now that it's finally back for a fifth season, we're reminded of all the lovely retro cultural references that pop up in the show, especially those that relate to travel. Of all the brands who've worked with Sterling Cooper/Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, the most memorable of the travel labels have been Hilton Hotels and Mohawk Airlines.

We won't give away any spoilers for those who haven't yet streamed the Season 5 premiere--don't worry.

All we'll say is that Mohawk returns to the scene, after such a long absence following Sterling Cooper's dropping their account in a bid for the bigger fish—American Airlines. They ended up losing both seasons back, but Mad Men gained the public's curiousity in the real Mohawk Airlines. The official Mad Men website even has a brief article detailing the history of the defunct carrier.

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Photographing the Vintage Cars of Mendoza, Argentina (in Hipstamatic)

February 29, 2012 at 2:13 PM | by | Comment (1)

If you want to talk about cities and their signature characteristics (and we obviously do), then you could say that NYC has its bodegas and delis, Las Vegas has its flashy signage, Moscow has its onion domes and Santiago—as we've already seen—has its vibrant street art. But Mendoza, Argentina?

Wineries, right? Wrong. The wineries of Mendoza are, for the most part, outside Mendoza in the agrarian outskirts. Instead, in the proper city center, we instead found streets littered with brightly painted vintage cars—Renaults, Peugeots, Fiats and Fords and Dodges from the 1950s through late 1970s, all surviving thanks to the arid environment.

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Pan Am's Season One Finale Was Likely Its Final Flight

February 23, 2012 at 2:45 PM | by | Comment (1)

The future doesn't look very bright for ABC's Pan Am. The show's season one finale attracted only 3.9 million viewers, the lowest in its time slot. So, after spending the past few weeks on the bubble, it looks like Sunday's dismal ratings guarantee the show won't be returning.

Now, with our favorite prime-time travel series kaput, we're hoping the networks will have something new travelers can look forward to in the fall season.

Here's a look at the top 3 most promising pilot shows for armchair adventurers:

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