News & Happenings In My World: World Airline History

South African Airways circa 1960

VASP of Brazil

Onboard service - the old-fashioned way!

One of Canada's iconic airlines of yesteryear - Wardair.

Northeast Airlines Convair with stewardess...

Pacific Western Airlines was a Canadian airline formed in the 1940's and based out of Calgary. After a number of mergers it gave rise to Canadian Airlines in 1987. At a reunion, a number of old stewardess outfits from the defunct airline went on show...

PWA

British Caledonian air hostess uniforms, 1970

British Caledonian was an independent airline which operated out of London's Gatwick Airport from 1970 to the end of 1987, when it was absorbed into British Airways. Caledonia is another name for Scotland and the patterns seem to be appropriately tartan.

The aircraft in the background is a Boeing 707-340C

LAN Chile 1980's

Hitler's first plane

A postcard issued for a Nazi Reichsparteitag (party conference) featuring Hitler's first personal plane.

Hitler used a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52 for campaigning the 1932 German election, preferring flying to travel via train. After he became German Chancellor in 1933, Hans Baur became his personal pilot, and Hitler was provided with a personal Ju 52. Named Immelmann after the WW1 ace Max Immelmann, it carried the designation D-2600.

The first three-engine prototype, powered by three 410 kW (550 hp) Pratt & Whitney Hornet engines, flew on 7 March 1932.

Eastern Airlines

Eastern starting using stewardesses back in the days of Eastern Air Transport. In the beginning, Eastern's flight attendants wore nurses uniforms. As years passed, they eventually got away from wearing nurses uniforms and modernized their look, changing them quite often.

Eastern Air Transport

1930's

Eastern Airlines

1950's

1960's

1970's

1980's

The world's first hosties to fly the transAtlantic route were flying for American Export Airlines in 1942.

All were trained nurses, as was the way of it since the 1930's and from left to right they were:
Adele Jenkins, Genevieve St Mary, Margaret Siegfried, Dorothy Bohanna and Virginia Osuch.

El Al over the decades...

50's

70's

90's

Qantas hostie in snowball fight in front of QF B707-338C, VH-EBR "City of Wollongong".
Looks like she is winning! probably late 60's or early 70's.

ex DELTA airlines uniform?

Air France in the 60's
In 1962, new uniforms designed by Marc Bohan, director and head designer of the House of Christian Dior, were introduced. Inspired by the 1961 Slim Look collection, Bohan's trademarks were simplicity, style and function - often complimented with a butterfly bow. Bohan came to head the House of Dior in 1960, replacing his younger protegé, Yves St Laurent (who was required to enter military service and then suffered a nervous breakdown), and headed the company successfully until 1989 with his penchant for practicality and style.

1963 Summer Uniform

1963 Winter Uniform

Air France Concorde Uniform

In 1976, Air France engaged the House of Jean Patou to produce special uniforms for the air hostesses who crewed Concorde. It premiered on January 21st, 1976. Designed by Angelo Tarlazzi, it was styled in a lightweight, flowing beige with a fine blue pinstripe. It was intended to be the "symbol of a very female elegance" and an ambassador for french dressmaking at each stop for Concorde.

It was replaced in 1986 with a new uniform styled by the house of Nina Ricci.

Sterling Airlines

Sterling Airlines air hostess standing at the foot of the stairs of a Super Caravelle, circa 1969.

A Czechoslovakian Airways ad for the Ilyushin IL-62, featuring a CSA hostie serving a choice of desserts. Check out the construction of the tray tables!

BOAC

American Airlines
American Airlines stewardesses adorn this early Douglas DC-4. The DC-4 was introduced into passenger service in 1946 but civilian production was limited. Surplus C-54's were much cheaper and the introduction of the pressurized and superior ranged DC-6 into service the following year by American Airlines and United made them obsolete on main routes. This photo was taken June 8, 1946 and the DC-4 would be AA's "Flagship" for only a short while until the DC-6's made their operational debut in April 1947.

ANA hosties in standard uniforms and traditional dress alongside a DC-3.

Finnair - 1947

Taken in Japan in 2007 with cabin crew representatives from the OneWorld Alliance airlines.

They are, from left: from American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malev, Qantas and Royal Jordanian.

Interflug

Famous Air Hostesses

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir - Prime Minister of Iceland

Johanna Sigurðardóttir was elected Iceland's first female Prime Minister on 1 February 2009; she also became the world's first openly lesbian head of government. She is currently that country's longest-serving parliamentarian, but once was a stewardess for Wahoo's favorite airline - Loftleiðir (now Icelandair).

She was active in the trade union movement from early in her professional life, presiding over the Board of the Icelandic Cabin Crew Association in 1966 and 1969 and over the Board of Svölurnar, Association of Former Stewardesses in 1975.

The Beatles shots out of the way once and for all...

The Fab Four with TWA.

Check out the inside door!

The Beatles with Pan Am hostie at the bottom of the steps at Idlewild in 1964. The use of scarves at the time to keep those beehive hairdo's in place seems quite common.

The aircraft is a B707, Clipper Defiance which was lost with all lives taking off from Miami in 1982. In addition, Flight 759 plowed into 6 houses and took another 8 lives on the ground.

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Here are the Beatles at London Airport on 7 June, 1964. Just in from Schiphol and heading (via BOAC) to concerts in Hong Kong. Ringo is missing - I think with tonsillitis.

The hostie is Anne Creech - a fellow Liverpudlian - and George looks like he is loving the attention he is getting.

These are ads you won't see anymore!

The top celebrates TAA's new uniforms in 1970 and the bottom an ad of similar vintage from Ansett welcoming the pending arrival of its new B737's.

Alligator Coats ad from 1961, featuring crew from American Airlines Astrojet service.

A Qantas Electra back in the days when flights to Japan carried Japanese hostesses. This photo was taken in 1959 - the year that B707s were introduced into the fleet.

Irish

Eastern

Continental

Alitalia 1969

Continental Airlines of the late '60s had lovely powder pink uniforms with white powder puff hats - very stylish!

Although the standard Pan American uniform during the 1970's was light blue, the introduction of the B747 into service also saw the "Galaxy Gold" uniform for stewardesses.

1971 from National Airlines.

Qantas uniforms over the decades of the 20th Century. Although the official uniform worn in 1970 was the orange one, the one being worn in the B747 photo is the one that was current in 1969.

Lufthansa.

Spain's national airline - Iberia

Check out the leg room and the legs...

Vintage SAS Scandinavian

Hungary's airline.

Postcards

British United Island Airways

British Airways Museum

Flight attendants for Alitalia

Varig Hosties

Lufthansa Hosties... the 70's

This 1965 pic from First Class aboard a LH B707 shows this is not a new practice.

1970's

North Central Convair 580 Flight Attendant

The January 1967 Southern Airways graduating class!

A classic retro hostie!

A snug fit for these Canadian Pacific gals.

Picture shows a hostie getting ready for her shift. A final check in the mirror with the printed checklist - sticklers for correctness then - but the major point to remember: SMILE!!

If the hat fits...

Just for a little variety, I thought I'd showcase a selection of stewardess hats. Many airlines have done away with them, but the headwear of the airline's hostesses would often distinguish them. The Braniff bubble hair-do protector is perhaps the best example, but many airlines sought an individual look apart from the more generic military-style cap.

TWA
1955

1965

Pan Am
1959

1970

United Airlines
1968

NorthWest Airlines
1958

TWA
40's

50's

Delta of the 70's.

United

Royal Jordanian

Air Iran / Homa

Manx Airlines

Air Hostess Heroine- Aurelia Grigore

There are many stories of true heroism amongst cabin crew, but Aurelia Grigore's story stands out as she was the saviour of the passengers of not just one air disaster, but two!

Aurelia (Laura) joined TAROM, the Romanian state airline, in 1975 at the age of 21 and worked as a stewardess there for over 30 years. When she started, selection criteria for the airline required knowledge of geography and at least 2 foreign languages. As Romania was behind the Iron Curtain, candidates were not allowed to have friends or relatives that lived abroad.

On 7 Aug, 1980 a TAROM Tu-154B carrying 152 passengers and 19 crew crash-landed in the Atlantic Ocean about 300 metres short of the intended runway approaching Mauritania. It was 3 am and in total darkness, with the aircraft running aground on a sandbank and breaking in two. Grigore, then 26 and 2 months pregnant, went forward only to find that the front of the plane was missing and the cockpit had submerged! She and the rest of the crew ordered all the passengers into their life jackets but the overwing lifeboat compartment was jammed and they could not release the boats.

One of the pilots who had all escaped from the sinking nose section then climbed aboard - the #2 engine was still running and fearing that it might explode or that the plane might slide backwards into the depths, they ordered everyone into the water. The passengers and crew from the forward section had some lifeboats and they began swimming for shore. Only a short way from shore, Aurelia found herself being pulled back out to sea by the current but she was able to gain safety by climbing back up on the wing of the crippled plane. There, to her astonishment, she found a fellow hostess with a neck injury, unable to move! (The girl had been dragged there from her seat by other passengers earlier but mistaken as dead and abandoned) She stayed with her and comforted her for 3 hours until they were rescued. Eventually, all 19 crew and 151 passengers survived thanks to the professionalism of the crew. The only fatality was a male passenger who suffered a heart attack during the ordeal!

None of this was ever reported by the Communist press. Although severely traumatised, Aurelia knew she had to face her fear or never fly again. She returned to work 2 weeks later!

Only 6 years later in the summer of 1986 she was crewing aboard a TAROM An24RV with a full passenger load of 52 souls when it crashed at Cluj airport. It was a hard landing and the aircraft bounced with the nose gear then collapsing up into the cockpit area which caught on fire. The plane skidded off the runway into a corn field. Quick thinking by Grigore saw her open the forward escape door before the plane had even stopped moving and the 52 passengers were all safely evacuated. Smoke was coming from the cockpit door but it was locked and the cabin crew could not help the pilots. From outside the plane they could see the cockpit engulfed in flames. On of the co-pilots was trying to escape through the windows but his foot was caught and he could not get out. He eventually frred himself and was taken to hospital but died shortly later of terrible burns. The other 2 pilots perished, burned alive in front of the eyes of their colleagues.

Aurelia Grigore retired in 2004 after over 30 years service. Her incredible story remains largely unknown. To this day she believes it was God's will that saw her washed back out to the stranded Tupolev to save her friend. No doubt she was the saviour of many others in those 2 terrible accidents.

Air Hostess Heroine - Barbara Jane Harrison.

On April 8, 1968, BOAC Flight 712 suffered an engine fire after takeoff from London Heathrow Airport and returned to the field for an emergency landing. The Boeing 707 had been bound for Australia and was laden with fuel. Flames killed five people, including flight attendant Jane Harrison, who was trying to rescue a disabled passenger. Harrison, 22, was posthumously awarded the George Cross for heroism.

Flight 712 was fully loaded with 126 passengers. Only 90 seconds after take off from Heathrow en-route to Sydney, the flight deck was rocked by a huge explosion. Seconds later the #2 engine caught fire and broke away. Captain Cliff Taylor made a remarkable emergency landing in a gravel pit 400 yards from the end of the runway only two and a half minutes later, but fire continued to engulf the wing and spread to the fuselage.

Miss Harrison and a male steward inflated the escape chute at the aft of the plane but it became entangled and the steward had to climb down to free it for use and was unable to return. Miss Harrison stayed at her station and helped passengers to escape as fire ravaged the plane, encouraging them to jump and in some cases simply pushing them out to safety. As the fire spread, escape from the rear of the aircraft became impossible and she led the remaining passengers to another exit. She refused to leave the plane to save herself and her body was found near that of a disabled pensioner, seated in one of the last rows.

Her colleague Anne Woods remembers:"She had plenty of opportunity to escape but did not feel right about leaving a wheelchair passenger and three others on board. The captain... kept screaming at her to jump.

Jane Harrison was only a month away from her 23rd birthday when she lost her life. She was posthumously awarded the George Cross for bravery the next year - one of only 4 female recipients and the only woman to have it awarded in peacetime. The medal was acquired at auction by British Airways in 1987 and is now on display at their archive museum at Heathrow Airport. (Anyone wanting to visit the museum should call 020 8513 7508). Her heroism is also commemorated in the chapel at Heathrow Airport.

Her courageous story is the subject of a book by Susan Ottaway - "Fire Over Heathrow – The Tragedy of Flight 712" . Five people died that day, but 121 people were saved, due largely to the bravery of Jane Harrison.

She is buried in Fulford Cemetery in York.

Runway 34 Restaurant

Dinner at Runway 34 Restaurant in Zurich - the one with the Ilyushin-14T inside. Upon entering the building a stewardess meets you at check-in and escorts you to your flight!