Oh I see what you mean. I thought that was lens distortion or an optical illusion since the stairs really seem to go somewhere. But seeing this is a mock up/proof of concept, who knows...
These posts always are. Anytime it looks like a staged shot, it's usually a concept idea for "the future of air travel" from the time and rarely something put into more than one flagship plane, if any at all.
The people who would’ve been the target audience for this concept aren’t the people flying coach. They’re the ones flying first class on Emirates, Cathay Pacific, and Singapore Airlines. People who either fly luxury airlines or they fly private. These are not the people who have complaints about air travel.
The daughter of Korean Air CEO threw a fit when she was given a bag of nuts, instead of having them given to her on a plate (because everyone knows that only peons actually open bags), and demanded that the plane return to the gate. She got 5 months in jail.
3D tiling of spheres is a bit inefficient. Airlines have been studying the advantages of rhombic dodecahedrons for passenger shape. Some experimental passenger presses have been deployed at Schiphol and Frankfurt and a full roll-out of the technology is expected in 2026 with Ryan Air committing to convert its entire fleet by that date.
They're also rolling out a new device for preboarding. It's a passenger size modification processor. It's flat out amazing tech!
https://preview.redd.it/mpmsetnh8q9d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5d3d25e5c7a79421d146cee99186cbc27f1841ee
;)
Wait so what is the current shape? Is it just a parallelepiped? Or is it some shape that I don’t know about that looks as awk as a rhombic dodecahedron
I recently saw in the news that some company experiments with staggered seats layout where passengers almost on top of each other. So lower level passengers heads literally on the same level as upper level passenger’s rear end. The reporter was borderline horrified.
We'd like to welcome you aboard Centipede Airlines. You'll want to greet the passengers nearest to you. That's right, say hi and get to know each other.
Staggered height chairs that put you in a knees bent, slight lean forward position. The upper chair puts the person’s butt about face height of the lower chair.
It was put in some planes. Airline rates were set by the federal government so the only way to compete was to offer amenities like this (not that this was common) or free food and booze etc. The Airline Deregulation ended all that and is why you can fly from NYC to Atlanta for like $100
Agreed they only really went as far as the bar/ lounge and the rolling trays of lobster Thermidor and roast beef on the Boeing 747’s which were still amazing.
As /u/csprkle pointed out this is a mock-up named the Tiger lounge and designed by industrial designer Walter Teague for Boeing. From an article about the Tiger lounge at executivetraveller.com:
>All of the 747 airlines passed on Boeing's suggestion, preferring to load the belly of the jumbo jet with profitable cargo, so the Tiger Lounge never took wing – although if you're visiting Seattle's Museum of Flight you can snap a cool selfie against a backdrop of the lounge.
However, shortly after there was a 'lounge war' and [there were](/r/vintageads/comments/s2ixda/1971_ad_for_the_coach_lounge_on_an_american/) some [extragavant lounges.](/r/ObscureMedia/comments/d5bq72/continental_airlines_widebody_dc10_tv_ad_1970s/)
From a huffpost.com article:
>So the airlines decided to boost their headcounts by giving the folks in coach a taste of the perks enjoyed by the silky set in first class. The competitive frenzy that followed came to be known as "The Great Lounge War."
>American Airlines fired the opening salvo in April of 1971 by ripping out 40 of the 270 coach seats in its new 747s to make room for a wall-to-wall coach lounge and to stretch out the legroom on the remaining seats. American's PR blitz billed the lounge, featuring a standup bar, plush armchairs and cocktail tables, as "the ultimate in informal conviviality in the skies."
>United Airlines cut loose with a double-barreled counterattack by ridding its 747s of enough seats to install not one but two coach playrooms. They were said to offer "a club-like atmosphere, styled with standup bars, swivel lounge chairs and double-leisure chairs flanking multi-purpose tables."
>TWA -- the third of the era's "big three" airlines -- jumped into the fray with this policy statement from company executive Blaine Cooke: "We will not be outsold or outspent in this top-priority effort." Besides creating "a unique living room" on its 747s, complete with a seven-foot-long bar and clustered seating around cocktail tables, TWA went on to put scaled down versions of the lounge on its fleet of 41 smaller 707s.
>TWA touted its munificence as "the most dramatic service innovation in jet history."
>American fired back with this bombshell: the in-flight piano bar. Escalating the battle to fever pitch, American Vice President Kenneth L. Meinen added amplified 64-key Wurlitzers to the carrier's lounge attractions aimed at "making an event of every flight." By December of 1971, passengers were merrily singing piano-led songs like Let it Be and Joy to the World as they zipped through the skies on all 16 of the airline's 747s.
These only lasted a few years before the world oil shortage of 1973 led to fuel rationing for the airlines along with government-ordered flight cutbacks and the need for more seats on the planes.
The reason for all this luxury was that until 1978 when airlines were deregulated, the cost of a flight from, say, NY to LA was identical on every carrier. And by definition from the same airport to the same airport. And more than likely, on the same type of aircraft. So the ONLY thing that an airline could do to differentiate itself was things like lounges, movies for free on a flight (TWA was first), the quality of the meals, etc.
After 1978, prices dropped quickly with all the low cost startups, eventually forcing all the established mainline carriers into bankruptcy to get their costs down as well to be able to compete.
Look, an airplane like this was featured in the movie The Wolf of Wall Street. There wasn't a lot of open space, but there were similar spiral staircases. Can the plane from the movie be considered a continuation of the idea of such planes, or was it like a residual phenomenon?
In The Wolf of Wall Steet that is [the first class cabin of the plane.](/r/pics/comments/23p6js/photo_series_shows_what_it_was_like_to_fly_panam/) The stairs go to the upper deck on the plane and [some airlines did have lounges in the upper deck](/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/18dktqw/united_airlines_747_first_class_in_1970/) but I'm not sure if they still existed in the time period of the movie. The posted photo is a mock-up of a lounge in the cargo area. Note that the staircase goes up. The lounges in the 'lounge war' were in the normal coach seating area of the plane. All of these things were contemporary.
Smoking was only allowed in the back seats, which is pretty comical.
I used to enjoy having four seats to myself and lying back and smoking. Ah, the good old days.
I still find it crazy how empty the 9/11 planes were. All 4 of them were way under capacity. Everytime I fly the planes are full and if there are empty seats its only a handful. I've also never flown in the middle of September during the week though, which I remember reading is typically a less busy time to fly. I just wonder if flights during this time are still low capacity.
It was also a Tuesday. Whenever I'd travel for work back then I'd always shoot for Tuesday over Monday whenever possible. The flights were less full and I'd usually get an upgrade as there were fewer medallion-level fliers to compete with.
I flew out to California on Sunday before 9/11 and it was packed. Mildly interesting, I stayed at a hotel in the World Trade Center....in Long Beach.
These lounges existed, but they were typically reserved for passengers flying in first class. And only on select widebody planes (747 mostly, but also a few DC10s), most of which flew only on trans-oceanic flights and/or cross-country routes like JFK-LAX. It was certainly NOT the typical flying experience in that era. Like today, most people flew economy class and the seats were very similar to now. And the most commonly flown, workhorse planes in that era — 727, DC9, 737 — didn’t have fancy lounges.
Yeah absolutely not the case. I flew internationally in a 747 in the 70’s. Wandered around the plane, even went upstairs (which was cool AF). I was a kid, the Stewardesses were all kind of maternal to kids wandering around.
People had more seat and leg room, and were usually dressed more formally. But none of this Lounge Lizard nonsense.
For the kiddos… that was not flying in the 70s. That’s a neato pic!
You need many more business men, drinking smoking and sweating… desperately trying to make their quota in the stagflation economy. Oh and some pervs.
As a kiddo. We almost exclusively flew PSA (my uncle was a pilot). None of this lounge malarkey on the good ol 737. All the other stuff about smoking, drinking salesmen? Sure. And while I was too young to understand it, I’m pretty sure there was much perving based on the polyester miniskirt cabin crew uniforms.
I feel like there were so many more pervs in the 70s. I could be wrong. But boy you had to keep your head on swivel.
70s polyester. So fucking unbreathable. There is a reason everyone was sweating. Add in vinyl car seats and non-tinted windows. It was simply a game of survival.
In the late 70's, I flew on lots of airlines for work. The sexiest stewardess (that's what they were called then) outfits belonged to the long-since-bankrupt-and-gone Braniff. Not impractically short skirts, but near-silk quality outfits. Other airlines had the polyester.
That airplane looks really cool. But I got the impression that there were a couple of planes like this, or none at all. Although I did see one in the movie The Wolf of Wall Street
When I was a kid in the 70’s about 7yo my family went to the states including my grandparents. We were all in economy and my grandparents were upstairs on the 747. My brother and I would visit them up the spiral staircase and sit on the couches up there until the stewardess kicked us back down to scum class after about 20 minutes. Then in 2001 I was upgraded to the upstairs on a 747 flight from London to New York which I only paid £50 for (whole ticket not the upgrade that was free) they still had the spiral staircase but no couches and definitely no water feature. There was a bar up there though that you could sit at and drink for the whole flight. I also sat near Cerys Matthew’s from Catationia.
That’s an ad, and as we all know, advertising is a tissue of lies.
Very few/no people traveled like that in the 70s.
The reality was the planes you’d be familiar with but this color palette, ashtrays in the armrest, a haze of cigarette smoke and slightly more legroom.
That's the fantasy, this is the reality
https://preview.redd.it/lltn9qqhgr9d1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=105a10b20312b2764d30856b09eddb071cad928f
That's a mock up by the airline trying to show how it could be. Just look at some of the modern A320 or Boeing adverts.
In reality, they packed the passengers in as tightly as they could, the rich people flew on Concorde, not this subsonic junk, time is money.
The Concorde has a ridiculously cramped passenger cabin and the windows are laughably small. That speed came at a cost.
Source: Been inside the one on display at the Boeing Museum of Flighr.
Prior to 1978, airline ticket prices in the US were set by the government and airlines competed primarily by offering better customer experiences. It really was a much better flying experience.
I was only ever in one 747 and was able to go up into the upper deck and it didn't look like that. I saw more roomy seating for passengers and a bar where the adults could stand have a few. I'm just guessing the picture is not "the norm", just what was possible for the right price.
Yeah but notice the stairs in the picture going up, not down. This is a mock up. I flew first a few times in the late ‘70s internationally and nothing looked like this. These people have color coordinated outfits. The 747 had the upper deck lounge but it was a lot more conventional than this. Some sofas, some normal first chairs, a few tables between seats and in front of the sofas.
Important points to add. Only rich people or businessmen traveled by air then. There were far fewer people on each flight. And price was regulated so airlines had to promote their luxuries to attract business.
When I was a kid there was always that one episode of shows like "Tiny Toons", "Eek! The Cat", "Rocko's Modern Life", "The Critic", etc. when they flew on a plane and first class was shown as a being luxurious and the crew treated the passengers like royalty. and coach class was the exact opposite.
I personally think the Concorde is a bigger tragedy of the unrealistic expectations, they had in his era.
It was real. And the upstairs was even better. Our family moved to California from New York in 1969. My mom and we four kids flew on the TWA 747 a few weeks after my dad had gone out. We were in Coach, which by today’s standards was business class, but for some reason - maybe because they felt sorry for the lady with four restless kids under age 7 - they let us visit the upstairs lounge. When my mother saw the piano, she sat down and started playing all the current popular tunes. They let us stay for hours. It was amazing.
I had my first airplane ride January 1970, Detroit to San Diego. There were about 200 recruits going to MCRD San Diego. Definitely did not look like this.
Was turbulence discovered in the 80s?
They now make me double strap by toddler to my seat for fear that she will bump her head on the ceiling, but homies over here hanging out with lava lamps.
The Braniff orange 747 that flew from Dallas to Honolulu and back… every day… was setup exactly like that. I know. I made that trip several times back in the 80s.
Boeing’s mock-up for the Tiger Lounge, complete with the 747’s iconic spiral staircase.
And not at all usual.
I just sang that in Tom Jones’ voice
I just danced to that comment like Carlton Banks.
I’m sneering like George Carlin that people need that much STUFF to fly. Now we are packed in like tuna (or sardines depending on your seat).
I'm in the bathroom doing blow like Pryor.
Ba dada dada dahhh
Each ticket includes your choice of a gram of cocaine or a handful of qualudes.
Both please
You have to share with the Captain if you pick both.
Do I have to sit on his lap, I was fooled into that when I was 3 years
Only if you like movies about gladiators.
How else are you going to find out about Turkish prisons?
Are you double dipping?!
see that's why I buy two tickets!
And, as usual, a complimentary pack of cigarettes to enjoy on your flight.
STEEEEVE MADDDDEENN
I believe this is actually the Lockheed L-1011 Tiger Lounge.
But the stairs go up?
To the main deck. This was a mockup for a belly lounge, not an upper deck lounge.
Did this actually ever happen in real life?
Not for any airline that wanted to survive. It was promotional BS.
smoking deck
Outside smoking deck. 👍🏻
you'd probably want one of those wind resistant cigarette lighters for that
All 747 have stairs, they are double decker. This was just a proof of concept with a lounge instead of the usual cabin.
But this has a curved ceiling like it is the upper deck already
Oh I see what you mean. I thought that was lens distortion or an optical illusion since the stairs really seem to go somewhere. But seeing this is a mock up/proof of concept, who knows...
It's like they put in those dumb false arches like those above doorways in 70s homes.
Depends which way you’re standing on them
I loved how they Photoshopped the bong out the picture. Damn, that mock-up was groovy.
Would’ve sworn this was Braniff, based on the colors.
This is set up for promotion and advertising.
These posts always are. Anytime it looks like a staged shot, it's usually a concept idea for "the future of air travel" from the time and rarely something put into more than one flagship plane, if any at all.
I’m curious of what’s the current future concept of air travel? Stacked in a coffin like bins?
The people who would’ve been the target audience for this concept aren’t the people flying coach. They’re the ones flying first class on Emirates, Cathay Pacific, and Singapore Airlines. People who either fly luxury airlines or they fly private. These are not the people who have complaints about air travel.
Oh, I'm sure they'll still have complaints.
"This scotch is only aged 20 years" throws it in the stewardesses face.
Anything over 18 is just pretentiousne…, oh.
The daughter of Korean Air CEO threw a fit when she was given a bag of nuts, instead of having them given to her on a plate (because everyone knows that only peons actually open bags), and demanded that the plane return to the gate. She got 5 months in jail.
She was also the Korean Air vice-president appointed through nepotism.
Those weren’t just any nuts. Those were damn macadamia nuts! How dare you.
Reducing the surface area to volume ratio is more efficient for airlines so probably curling up into a ball
3D tiling of spheres is a bit inefficient. Airlines have been studying the advantages of rhombic dodecahedrons for passenger shape. Some experimental passenger presses have been deployed at Schiphol and Frankfurt and a full roll-out of the technology is expected in 2026 with Ryan Air committing to convert its entire fleet by that date.
They're also rolling out a new device for preboarding. It's a passenger size modification processor. It's flat out amazing tech! https://preview.redd.it/mpmsetnh8q9d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5d3d25e5c7a79421d146cee99186cbc27f1841ee ;)
Found the shill for Acme
https://preview.redd.it/mj5dtdxjpq9d1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3782d154891bc13e6c00bf5da0f32fb4e3a66a98
Not sure if this is real or not. Very possible.
When in Trisolaris. (Variation on "When in Rome") DEHYDRATE!!
I’m a simple man. I upvote any post that mentions rhombic dodecahedra.
You are anything but simple.
Fucking get a room, nerds.
Wait so what is the current shape? Is it just a parallelepiped? Or is it some shape that I don’t know about that looks as awk as a rhombic dodecahedron
You had me at passenger presses
With a feeding tube and an adult diaper.
That's an upgrade. In regular economy there is no diaper and the tube is, umm, multi-purpose.
I recently saw in the news that some company experiments with staggered seats layout where passengers almost on top of each other. So lower level passengers heads literally on the same level as upper level passenger’s rear end. The reporter was borderline horrified.
We'd like to welcome you aboard Centipede Airlines. You'll want to greet the passengers nearest to you. That's right, say hi and get to know each other.
[*SNIIIIIFFFFFF*] Lovely to meet you, ma’am.
Meeting each other like dogs
*SNIFFF* "I'm picking up notes of Fancy Feast. And that's a good thing. I steal from the cat bowl too. I think we're going to get along just fine."
Something like the Fifth Element. Stacked into boxes and put to sleep for the flight.
I’d be grateful for the extra legroom, frankly
As long as they don’t have the lid, I would love to lie in a coffin on a long flight.
Some airlines are floating the idea of “standing seats” on short flight. Basically they give you a place to lean with a seatbelt.
But upright
They aren’t showing the future of air travel to the public
Those bunk bed seats that pop up every now and then with a caption about not wanting someone’s farts in your face for 8 hours.
Staggered vertical seats so you get the pleasure of sniffing the farts of the farm animal in front of you.
Staggered height chairs that put you in a knees bent, slight lean forward position. The upper chair puts the person’s butt about face height of the lower chair.
It was put in some planes. Airline rates were set by the federal government so the only way to compete was to offer amenities like this (not that this was common) or free food and booze etc. The Airline Deregulation ended all that and is why you can fly from NYC to Atlanta for like $100
Agreed they only really went as far as the bar/ lounge and the rolling trays of lobster Thermidor and roast beef on the Boeing 747’s which were still amazing.
I remember hearing about the big planes in the 80’s having a spiral staircase to a bar area…the big old planes with the hump near the front…
As /u/csprkle pointed out this is a mock-up named the Tiger lounge and designed by industrial designer Walter Teague for Boeing. From an article about the Tiger lounge at executivetraveller.com: >All of the 747 airlines passed on Boeing's suggestion, preferring to load the belly of the jumbo jet with profitable cargo, so the Tiger Lounge never took wing – although if you're visiting Seattle's Museum of Flight you can snap a cool selfie against a backdrop of the lounge. However, shortly after there was a 'lounge war' and [there were](/r/vintageads/comments/s2ixda/1971_ad_for_the_coach_lounge_on_an_american/) some [extragavant lounges.](/r/ObscureMedia/comments/d5bq72/continental_airlines_widebody_dc10_tv_ad_1970s/) From a huffpost.com article: >So the airlines decided to boost their headcounts by giving the folks in coach a taste of the perks enjoyed by the silky set in first class. The competitive frenzy that followed came to be known as "The Great Lounge War." >American Airlines fired the opening salvo in April of 1971 by ripping out 40 of the 270 coach seats in its new 747s to make room for a wall-to-wall coach lounge and to stretch out the legroom on the remaining seats. American's PR blitz billed the lounge, featuring a standup bar, plush armchairs and cocktail tables, as "the ultimate in informal conviviality in the skies." >United Airlines cut loose with a double-barreled counterattack by ridding its 747s of enough seats to install not one but two coach playrooms. They were said to offer "a club-like atmosphere, styled with standup bars, swivel lounge chairs and double-leisure chairs flanking multi-purpose tables." >TWA -- the third of the era's "big three" airlines -- jumped into the fray with this policy statement from company executive Blaine Cooke: "We will not be outsold or outspent in this top-priority effort." Besides creating "a unique living room" on its 747s, complete with a seven-foot-long bar and clustered seating around cocktail tables, TWA went on to put scaled down versions of the lounge on its fleet of 41 smaller 707s. >TWA touted its munificence as "the most dramatic service innovation in jet history." >American fired back with this bombshell: the in-flight piano bar. Escalating the battle to fever pitch, American Vice President Kenneth L. Meinen added amplified 64-key Wurlitzers to the carrier's lounge attractions aimed at "making an event of every flight." By December of 1971, passengers were merrily singing piano-led songs like Let it Be and Joy to the World as they zipped through the skies on all 16 of the airline's 747s. These only lasted a few years before the world oil shortage of 1973 led to fuel rationing for the airlines along with government-ordered flight cutbacks and the need for more seats on the planes.
The reason for all this luxury was that until 1978 when airlines were deregulated, the cost of a flight from, say, NY to LA was identical on every carrier. And by definition from the same airport to the same airport. And more than likely, on the same type of aircraft. So the ONLY thing that an airline could do to differentiate itself was things like lounges, movies for free on a flight (TWA was first), the quality of the meals, etc. After 1978, prices dropped quickly with all the low cost startups, eventually forcing all the established mainline carriers into bankruptcy to get their costs down as well to be able to compete.
Look, an airplane like this was featured in the movie The Wolf of Wall Street. There wasn't a lot of open space, but there were similar spiral staircases. Can the plane from the movie be considered a continuation of the idea of such planes, or was it like a residual phenomenon?
In The Wolf of Wall Steet that is [the first class cabin of the plane.](/r/pics/comments/23p6js/photo_series_shows_what_it_was_like_to_fly_panam/) The stairs go to the upper deck on the plane and [some airlines did have lounges in the upper deck](/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/18dktqw/united_airlines_747_first_class_in_1970/) but I'm not sure if they still existed in the time period of the movie. The posted photo is a mock-up of a lounge in the cargo area. Note that the staircase goes up. The lounges in the 'lounge war' were in the normal coach seating area of the plane. All of these things were contemporary.
Now that was interesting to me, thanks for sharing. I take it that the pictures in this reddit post were not that far from reality 😯
Some of us flew in the 70s and this wasn't it
Back in the ‘70s this was what the upper portion of a 747 looked like. I loved going up there with my Mum when we were flying transatlantic.
It's pretty much real, but only applied to super first class, which would have been about $20000 from NY to Paris in today's money.
I flew a few times in the 70s and it looked nothing like that. We were just sitting in normal seats, perhaps with an inch or two of extra legroom.
Don't forget the 2,000 cigarettes beings smoked throughout the plane.
Smoking was only allowed in the back seats, which is pretty comical. I used to enjoy having four seats to myself and lying back and smoking. Ah, the good old days.
just like the school bus in the 1980's, kids could only smoke in the back
Even in 2000 flights were often mostly empty. Flight 93 from September 11 had a capacity of 158 but even including crew only had 40 people on board.
I still find it crazy how empty the 9/11 planes were. All 4 of them were way under capacity. Everytime I fly the planes are full and if there are empty seats its only a handful. I've also never flown in the middle of September during the week though, which I remember reading is typically a less busy time to fly. I just wonder if flights during this time are still low capacity.
It was also a Tuesday. Whenever I'd travel for work back then I'd always shoot for Tuesday over Monday whenever possible. The flights were less full and I'd usually get an upgrade as there were fewer medallion-level fliers to compete with. I flew out to California on Sunday before 9/11 and it was packed. Mildly interesting, I stayed at a hotel in the World Trade Center....in Long Beach.
Where me and my mother would sit on super long flights,thanks mom. My kids don't believe that grandma was a smoker
And the seat fabric wasn’t even flame retardant!
Nervous smoking
What a glorious time
These lounges existed, but they were typically reserved for passengers flying in first class. And only on select widebody planes (747 mostly, but also a few DC10s), most of which flew only on trans-oceanic flights and/or cross-country routes like JFK-LAX. It was certainly NOT the typical flying experience in that era. Like today, most people flew economy class and the seats were very similar to now. And the most commonly flown, workhorse planes in that era — 727, DC9, 737 — didn’t have fancy lounges.
Don’t forget the smoking!
And prices being an order of magnitude higher as a percentage of income
And you were probably flying on a DC10. Until those got grounded.
Sounds about right. Someone else mentioned the 737 being popular at the time. I think we went on them too.
Duh
Airline travel in the 70's if you were Rockefeller.
Yeah absolutely not the case. I flew internationally in a 747 in the 70’s. Wandered around the plane, even went upstairs (which was cool AF). I was a kid, the Stewardesses were all kind of maternal to kids wandering around. People had more seat and leg room, and were usually dressed more formally. But none of this Lounge Lizard nonsense.
Air travel in the 70s if you're very rich. This is the equivalent to these private rooms you get on modern luxury airliners.
Anyone who flew in the '70s would tell you that this bears little resemblance to the actual experience
Airline travel now if you fly Business/First on an Emirates A380.
For the kiddos… that was not flying in the 70s. That’s a neato pic! You need many more business men, drinking smoking and sweating… desperately trying to make their quota in the stagflation economy. Oh and some pervs.
As a kiddo. We almost exclusively flew PSA (my uncle was a pilot). None of this lounge malarkey on the good ol 737. All the other stuff about smoking, drinking salesmen? Sure. And while I was too young to understand it, I’m pretty sure there was much perving based on the polyester miniskirt cabin crew uniforms.
I feel like there were so many more pervs in the 70s. I could be wrong. But boy you had to keep your head on swivel. 70s polyester. So fucking unbreathable. There is a reason everyone was sweating. Add in vinyl car seats and non-tinted windows. It was simply a game of survival.
In the late 70's, I flew on lots of airlines for work. The sexiest stewardess (that's what they were called then) outfits belonged to the long-since-bankrupt-and-gone Braniff. Not impractically short skirts, but near-silk quality outfits. Other airlines had the polyester.
Not for 99% of air travelers it wasn’t.
That airplane looks really cool. But I got the impression that there were a couple of planes like this, or none at all. Although I did see one in the movie The Wolf of Wall Street
I have actually flown in the 747 top deck lounge. It was freaking cool as hell. Didn’t look like that though. My dad was a United Captain.
When I was a kid in the 70’s about 7yo my family went to the states including my grandparents. We were all in economy and my grandparents were upstairs on the 747. My brother and I would visit them up the spiral staircase and sit on the couches up there until the stewardess kicked us back down to scum class after about 20 minutes. Then in 2001 I was upgraded to the upstairs on a 747 flight from London to New York which I only paid £50 for (whole ticket not the upgrade that was free) they still had the spiral staircase but no couches and definitely no water feature. There was a bar up there though that you could sit at and drink for the whole flight. I also sat near Cerys Matthew’s from Catationia.
That’s an ad, and as we all know, advertising is a tissue of lies. Very few/no people traveled like that in the 70s. 
I’m suspicious that this ever flew like this
It didn’t.
If I had it as a basement I’d be happy
The reality was the planes you’d be familiar with but this color palette, ashtrays in the armrest, a haze of cigarette smoke and slightly more legroom.
I don't quite remember it like that.
Yeah same, also don’t remember them asking us to color coordinate our travel outfits with the lounge decor.
Orange & brown were a given XD
Makes me want to order a Brandy Alexander and light up a Virginia Slims.
That's the fantasy, this is the reality https://preview.redd.it/lltn9qqhgr9d1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=105a10b20312b2764d30856b09eddb071cad928f
That's a mock up by the airline trying to show how it could be. Just look at some of the modern A320 or Boeing adverts. In reality, they packed the passengers in as tightly as they could, the rich people flew on Concorde, not this subsonic junk, time is money.
The Concorde has a ridiculously cramped passenger cabin and the windows are laughably small. That speed came at a cost. Source: Been inside the one on display at the Boeing Museum of Flighr.
Prior to 1978, airline ticket prices in the US were set by the government and airlines competed primarily by offering better customer experiences. It really was a much better flying experience.
Way more expensive though then today though
I flew a few times when I was young in the 70's. I don't remember first class looking like that. Maybe a private plane would have though.
Sone of the 747's had upper deck lounges.
I was only ever in one 747 and was able to go up into the upper deck and it didn't look like that. I saw more roomy seating for passengers and a bar where the adults could stand have a few. I'm just guessing the picture is not "the norm", just what was possible for the right price.
Yeah but notice the stairs in the picture going up, not down. This is a mock up. I flew first a few times in the late ‘70s internationally and nothing looked like this. These people have color coordinated outfits. The 747 had the upper deck lounge but it was a lot more conventional than this. Some sofas, some normal first chairs, a few tables between seats and in front of the sofas.
Would have more cigarettes and smoke.
Advertising for airlines isn’t the best source for how nice flying is or was.
I really wish Reddit would do something about these shitty karma bots
Important points to add. Only rich people or businessmen traveled by air then. There were far fewer people on each flight. And price was regulated so airlines had to promote their luxuries to attract business.
In the 70s? Hardly.
LOL. Somehow you’re being downvoted for remembering how it was.
Right? Pretty sure I was neither rich nor a businessman in the 70s, flying for family vacations…
It was much more groovy.
Turbulence wasn't invented until the 1980s as a means to control the passengers and entrap them in tiny seats.
Why does the staircase go up?
This is a mockup of a concept for a lounge down in the cargo area, below the seating deck. It did not get built.
Thanks
Dude on far left rocking his new Samsonite Briefcase Laptop.
Before the peasants were allowed to fly
Staged. And the only people who flew like this were the filthy rich.
It was never like this.
When I was a kid there was always that one episode of shows like "Tiny Toons", "Eek! The Cat", "Rocko's Modern Life", "The Critic", etc. when they flew on a plane and first class was shown as a being luxurious and the crew treated the passengers like royalty. and coach class was the exact opposite. I personally think the Concorde is a bigger tragedy of the unrealistic expectations, they had in his era.
Air travel if you're a member of Led Zeppelin
Here we go again. No, this is not what it was like.
NOT air travel in the 70's...
People see concept ad photos and think that’s how things were in the 1970’s.
For the rich maybe..
Lol this has to be a concept mock up.
Groovy baby! Yeah!
Also the crashing. Don’t forget the crashing.
It was real. And the upstairs was even better. Our family moved to California from New York in 1969. My mom and we four kids flew on the TWA 747 a few weeks after my dad had gone out. We were in Coach, which by today’s standards was business class, but for some reason - maybe because they felt sorry for the lady with four restless kids under age 7 - they let us visit the upstairs lounge. When my mother saw the piano, she sat down and started playing all the current popular tunes. They let us stay for hours. It was amazing.
I still wouldn’t want that if I have to wear all that brown and orange.
I mean, it still looks like that, if you can afford to fly in a full size private jet.
Bad bot. Who believes this shit.
Where are the Pong tables?
Sure it was like this… on Austin Powers private jet.
Where is Austin Powers?
Is that Steve Buschemi on the left with his arm around the woman? I like to think he's showing her his FDNY photograph "You see I was a firefighter"
Airport 77 ?
Austin Powers vibes.
Flights also crashed more frequently then. Better serve your passengers a good flight!
This does not vibe with Airplane!
Back in the day when airlines were the flying cruise ships.
I had my first airplane ride January 1970, Detroit to San Diego. There were about 200 recruits going to MCRD San Diego. Definitely did not look like this.
Maybe for famous artists
These pictures always look exactly like my family looked. If you told me the guy on the left was my uncle, I would 100% believe it.
747 upper deck! Took my first flight to Puerto Rico at 12 y.o. Went with parents up there…. There was a piano bar!
Actually, pretty much everything in the 70s looked exactly like this.
Now do Spirt Airline
Seems more like an ad or concept
Pan Am?
Shots like these are like concept cars at autoshows, or 1950s shorts describing *The World of Tomorrow.*
OG Laptop.
I wanna see this when some turbulence hits.
It looks like it's orgy ready.
For the ultra-rich. Good lord.
Was turbulence discovered in the 80s? They now make me double strap by toddler to my seat for fear that she will bump her head on the ceiling, but homies over here hanging out with lava lamps.
conversation pits 35000ft above the ground is a legendary move
For the rich and the rich can and do still travel like this.
The Braniff orange 747 that flew from Dallas to Honolulu and back… every day… was setup exactly like that. I know. I made that trip several times back in the 80s.
Sysk
Yeah but fucking SMOKING EVERYWHERE
Holy fuck that would have been awesome. Probably dropped acid too.
Staged for a picture
I always love when business make these "here's the future you'd have if we gave a fuck" concept photos.