Shawn Pittman

A turkey dinner is served aboard a Pan Am Stratocruiser during a 1949 flight. In the early days of commercial aviation, flying was promoted as a luxurious experience rather than simply the fastest way to travel. The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, flown by Pan American World Airways and several other airlines, was one of the most lavish passenger aircraft ever built. Developed from the B-29 bomber, it featured a double-deck layout with spacious cabins, sleeping berths on some routes, and a lower-deck lounge where passengers could relax and socialize. Meals were served on fine china with metal cutlery, and long-haul travelers could enjoy dishes such as roast turkey, steak, lobster, and caviar. Cruising at about 340 mph, the Stratocruiser carried around 100 passengers—far fewer than today’s widebody airliners. That level of comfort came at a premium, with a transatlantic ticket in the late 1940s costing the equivalent of several thousand dollars today. Pan Am launched its first scheduled transatlantic Stratocruiser service between New York and London in 1949. The trip took roughly 15 hours and included refueling stops, compared with about seven hours on a modern jet. The arrival of aircraft like the Boeing 707 in the late 1950s greatly reduced travel times and ushered in the Jet Age.