Why Flight Attendants Do These 8 Rituals From The Golden Age of Flying

Why do flight attendants do that? Why do flight attendants do that? In 1930, the job of the very first stewardesses included tightening the bolts that held passenger seats to the floor. Hand out children's wing pins, arm the doors, sit by the exit facing you, check your seat belt: this documentary traces the history behind eight cabin rituals, back to the golden age of air travel. We follow stewardess history through 1940 Delta and its chewing gum, the hot towel (Japan Air Lines and Singapore Airlines both claim it), a 1952 loudspeaker greeting, the jump seat by the door and why sitting on the hands is a choice, not a rule, the wings ceremony, "arm doors and cross-check", the 1965 spoken safety briefing, and the seat-belt warning that could only ask for about thirty years. Vintage air travel and aviation history, 1930–1980, across America, Britain and Canada. Every fact is sourced below. ✈️ Next flight: The Rules Every 1960s Stewardess Had to Obey CHAPTERS 00:00 1940: Gum for the passengers 00:34 The countdown 00:59 1930: The bolts on the floor 01:31 No. 8: Wings for the children 02:28 No. 7: The hot towel 03:17 No. 6: "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen" 03:52 No. 5: By the door, hands still 05:12 No. 4: Her own wings 05:57 No. 3: "Arm doors and cross-check" 07:07 No. 2: The safety briefing 08:05 No. 1: The seat-belt check 08:39 The answer 09:00 The warning came first 09:30 Two generations in the aisle 09:59 Your wings 10:23 Next flight SOURCES ("the manifest") Delta Flight Museum, "Delta Stories: 1940s In-Flight Service," 2014 (Sybil Peacock Harmon, in her own words) — https://www.deltamuseum.org/about-us/... FAA, "Ellen Church and the Advent of the Sky Girls" — https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/fil... Federal Aviation Agency, Amendment 121-2 et al., passenger emergency evacuation and flight attendants, 30 F.R. 3200, March 9, 1965 — https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/76... FAA, "Buckle Up: The History of Aviation Safety Belt Policy" — https://www.faa.gov/media/20816 FAA Technical Center, Symposium on New Safety Considerations for Emergency Evacuation Slides, 1980 (James Summer; Henri Branting) — https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/90... Also: Wyoming PBS, Our Wyoming; Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 15, 2019 (Kelly Yamanouchi); Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, "The Evolution of the Commercial Flying Experience," and the AirSpace podcast, "Safety Dance"; SFO Museum collection (children's wings, the Boeing Air Transport insignia, the United wings ceremony); Japan Airlines company history, 1951–1960; Business Traveller, December 20, 2022 (the hot towel's return); SmarterTravel, March 1, 2020 (children's wing pins); WSVN Miami, June 9, 2016; The Michigan Daily, January 11, 1952 (Donna Knox); UT Arlington Libraries, Fort Worth Star-Telegram collection; American Airlines company history; Travel + Leisure and Reader's Digest on the brace position; Air & Space/Smithsonian, October 25, 2009 (rear-facing seats); FAA Federal Register, February 4, 1980 (flight attendant seats); U.S. Patent 2,765,131. IMAGE CREDITS Archive films courtesy Internet Archive: Fashion Horizons (TWA, 1940); Look to Lockheed (1940); Airplanes (Ford, 1930); An Airplane Trip By Jet (United, 1960); 6 1/2 Magic Hours (Pan Am, c.1958); Plane Talk (1965); The Airport (1948); Letter From an Airline Pilot (TWA) Photo: City Foodsters, CC BY 2.0 Photo: Marek Ślusarczyk (Tupungato), CC BY 3.0 Photo: Voltmetro, CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo: RIA Novosti / Alexey Danichev, CC BY-SA 3.0 Photo: RIA Novosti / Anton Denisov, CC BY-SA 3.0 San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives (stewardess wings, uniforms and the United class of the 1940s); Wikimedia Commons contributors C. Doyle, Thiago Souza, Nimbus227 and User:Mattes (public domain); National Park Service NPGallery (Ford Tri-Motor cabin, 1929); L'Aéronautique, January 1929, via Gallica; FAA Federal Register pages and U.S. patent drawings (public domain) Some stock footage from Pexels Maps, diagrams and illustrations are ours; illustrations are labelled on screen, and diagrams are not to scale. #stewardesslife #flightattendant #goldenageofairtravel #aviationhistory