Last day of the hiatus - but you know that, because you’ve been paying attention to the Bleat banners. Here's something I found at a postcard show. I paid a buck and a half, and it was worth it. This is the ticket folder for a 1963 TWA trip.

These were holy important papers. If you lost them, you were screwed. It was like your phone going dead while you were in the line to board

Inside:

Hourly pre-recorded flight information - available over the phone! The jet age abounded with miracles.

The ticket inside:

A lot of writing and stamping. The tickets were as thin as one-ply bathroom tissue, too.

This was included in the portfolio. Someone didn’t pack light.

The portfolio included the check. The name isn’t the same as the one on the ticket.

I find this interesting. We’re told that air travel was expensive and confined to the upper-middle class. Here’s the address for the check:

It’s possible those apartments went up in 64, and more elegant houses stood on that block.

Ah: Bee and Mrs. Hoffman took the trip. $405 in modern money: $3,365.

Cost of a ticket today: around $600.

Related: In 1965, a silly movie called “A Very Special Favor” started out in a TWA jet to Paris. Some nice interior shots.

Has this whetted your appetite for the glamorous days of flight? Good! Some old airline ads, accumulated during the construction of the 50s site.

That last one’s interesting - she’s coming from upstairs? What was the plane?

Its design was advanced for its day; its innovative features included two passenger decks and a pressurized cabin, a relatively new feature on transport aircraft. It could carry up to 100 passengers on the main deck plus 14 in the lower deck lounge; typical seating was for 63 or 84 passengers or 28 berthed and five seated passengers.

The Stratocruiser was larger than the Douglas DC-6 and Lockheed Constellation and cost more to buy and operate. Its reliability was poor, chiefly due to problems with the four 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial engines and structural and control problems with their propellers.

The early days were touch and go.

Some recipe cards for you now; see you back in the saddle on Monday. (Note: no actual saddle will be occupied)