F 2210 American Airlines The Mercury Douglas DC-7 

I remember the meals they served on airplanes in the 50s and 60s. People joked and complained about them even then. Still, on a plane is one of the few places where your food isn’t served by someone with rings through their noses, lips or tongues. My hat is off to hard working flight attendants everywhere. They are the true company representatives.

That warbly audio on this film is a trip in itself.

And these fly boys were all ex WW 2. Tremendous flight experience and courage. They really flew the plane.

My father, Red Sutherland, was VP of the PR department and this was one of his films. This introduced the new DC-7. My sister and brother are featured.

Fantastic video!My first plane trip was on a Braniff DC7C Newark to Dallas,1957.This brought back many memories.

The DC-7's and Super Constellations were the last of the great piston airliners. Never flew on the DC-7 but had several flights on the DC-6's. This was an age before computers (especially in airplanes). I'll bet that captain was an ex-bomber pilot from WWII. Weather forecasting and reporting was a bigger operational problem back then. I'm a retired pilot (1960-2000).

When I was very young we would fly the eastern shuttle from friendship ( now BWI) to visit relatives in NYC on constellations. I remember bumpy rides and being fascinated by the triple tail. After that it was 707s, 727s and so on. The prop planes are classics. Glad I flew a few times on those Connies.

As a young kid I flew from Hawaii to California in a Lockheed Super Constillation, and back to Hawaii in a Douglas DC-7. Yes, the flights took twice as long but the seats were wide, comfortable, and the food was restaurant quality. I remember the meal going back was a nice tender steak. Strange how one remembers things like that. Today, there are no passenger dress codes, the seats are narrow and uncomfortable, and the meal service is gone unless you're in First Class paying double what economy class passengers are paying. I miss those older prop planes. The better comfort made up for the longer trip.

I was a Flight Operations Agent at JFK in 1966 and recognized that Flight Dispatcher with the pipe but don't recall his name.

The Route @ 15:54 NY -> Mars, PA -> Lafayette, IN -> Kirksville, MO -> Concordia, KS -> Pueblo, CO -> (then he says Flag / Mesa, Arizona)??? Does he mean Flagstaff? They are way to north of Mesa, AZ and tracking they are flying near 4 Corners and the only Mesa I found was Red Mesa, AZ -> Lake Mohave, NV -> Daggett, CA -> LA Had to post the ROUTE!!! AWESOME.

My, how times have changed! That lamb chop DID look good!

When people dressed up to fly and the food was actually good. That was cool to see this. Fairly high tech for it’s day.

Good memories, For this film the AA sales reps were hauling around those big 16mm projectors, screen and speakers for travel agent or activities promoting AA back in the day and they weren’t bashful promoting their Love Field training centers or Sky Chefs their inflight kitchens either. All the AA staff with few exceptions were extremely proud of their company, top notch and a pleasure to deal with.

I especially enjoyed the fuzzball at the bottom left of the screen. Nothing like some authentic debris in these old films!

Good old days when an actual meteorologist personally briefed you and your crew

Only 8 hours! From New York to L. A. ! Before the Trans-continental Railroad, imagine the same trip, via a Conestoga wagon, pulled by 6 or 8 oxen! Less then 90 years earlier!!!!!! About a 5 or 6 months journey.

Just watch out for that Constellation when you are over the Grand Canyon. OK ?

DC6B was the best prop liner ever made

Dang that receptionist is georgous with that red lipstick.

When people dressed to fly, no one wearing pajamas on that flight.

I watch the reruns of the original version of THE PRICE IS RIGHT, and Don Pardo touts the Mercury in the plug for AA, who brought returning contestants to New York.

Educated in a BS in Aerospace. Flew for the airlines. Couldn’t wait to fly bigger and bigger jets during my career. Now, at 76, I look back fondly on the old low and slow props. Sometimes I wonder if higher, and faster ruined aviation. lol

8 Hours coast to coast on a DC7; 6 hours on a Boeing 777. A $200 million dollar airplane saves 2 hours of flight time? If you factor in traffic, parking, security and baggage, there's probably no time savings at all

Yes, Mister Finchley, you, too may be ground to pieces in this machinery, as was your reservation. Thank you for flying American Airlines!

The smell of cigarette smoke was heavy in this enclosed aluminum tube

There is just no way that thing should ever get up in the air! So many tons of metal, fuel, baggage and people!

Bring back the Super Chief!

The airline pilots of the day were gods---now just bus drivers.

That DC-7 was either scrapped, or sitting in a flight museum somewhere.

Cool video. I guess this was in the 50's or early 60's? Interesting to see how atc work back then. No radar on route. Is there full radar coverage today all across the USA? Also nice to see the VOR station also from the inside!

this was really flying! a crew actually flew the plane! no fly by wire.. flying was an adventure then it had class,and style, people actually got dressed up to fly, unlike today, it's a city bus in the air. I grew up with pan American, I remember these days. I don't fly anymore.

Anyone else notice how easily that couple swapped seats around 18'40? No standing into the passageway first then back in! Lots of leg room.

How well I remember what flying used to be Sad now

Incredible, it took so many more hours to fly coast to coast back in the 1950's

They could cancel IFR back then. Insane.

Looked kinda overcast for the engine run-up, then the sun came out for take off, but then overcast again half way down the runway! Lol

VFR at FL220 that was the time of freedom of flight!

They mention DC-7 planes at the end of lots of WHAT'S MY LINE video here on RU-vid from around 1958 shows!

My dad haunts my old house, he's still alive, but still somehow haunts it

6:55: Every seat a first class seat. They way it should be.

This was just before the 707 JETS took over AND THEY ACTUALLY FLEW VFR LIKE A SMALL PRIVATE PLANE CAN DO NOW.

When America Could Fly With No Worries!

All things considered, things were much better back then

Oh, the good o’l fashion VOR system..now that’s X/C flying..😊

Smoke em if you got em!

Nice dinner they were served!

Fire up those Lucky Strikes 13:51

Starting around 21:27 - when the flight crew deployed the "speed brakes", the main landing gears came down to slow the DC-7 down.. instead of the modern control surfaces on top of the wings (spoilers) :-)

No tempo em que a Douglas dava as cartas em matéria de aeronaves civis.

My father n My father....... .

Yep, need the same number of landings as take-offs.

Routing was by "track". One would think these were old railroaders! Also, note that the luaggage compartment door was right in front of the prop arc, so the tugs had to practically drive under the props. There was likely no risk of an engine turning over during baggage loading, but these big blades hangin gdown had to hurt of someone ran into them.

They don’t give the date. I could look up the DC-7 date but I suspect about 1955. All passengers were virtually first-class back then. Flew on a DC-4 or something, Jacksonville about 1954. Midway - these were all electro-mechanical machines. I miss the mechanical typewriter feel.

Well, I almost had the dubious distinction of posting the 767th post for this promo film. I'm sure I don't have to bring up the fact that an American Airlines 767 was the very first to fly into Manhattan that horrible day.....

Wow. 360mph.

How About A Cold Budweiser 2 Enjoy With The Good Meal?

Wow....cancel IFR and go VFR in a passenger DC7. Couldn’t do that today.

Quoth "the girl" to Mr. Finchley, "For what day will that be?". Not entirely correct (she should have asked "for WHICH day...) but a lot closer to proper grammar than anyone would hear today.

No MCAS on this airplane. The pilot flew, not a computer or angle of attack vane.

Look at those big roasted turkeys!!!! Was it an all business class?

When the pilot flew the plane not computers

In 1950s and 60s did runways have to be 150 feet wide and taxi way 75 feet wide

How many passengers could the three versions on DC-7 carry?

Que diferencia hay entre un dc6 y un dc7.

Kind of strange watching the landing at LAX when the 405 didn't exist.

similar benchmarks sometimes don't equal this video!

8700 meal a day for AA probably lots less today Gate agent without ear protection & boarding the flt from the ticket counter

Bring back manners, service, and decorum.

And along came computers... And all those jobs, GONE!

Zipping along at nearly 6 miles a minute in a DC-7...VFR...hmm. Video/film is circa 1954. At 11:14 the radar departure controller says "...I have you in sight...". Extremely poor phraseology. "I have you in sight" is generally reserved for VFR control towers, NOT radar departure controllers. "Radar identified" became the approved phraseology.

Plat-toon

What is with the WOW in your projector?? EVERY Periscope film has it, and it ruins the audio tracks! Most of these should be redone due to the speed wow issue....and dirty film.

Notice everybody is White, speaks "American" English? What strange country is this? Was this? How can this be? Everybody seems polite, nice, orderly? How can such a civilization exist?

Audio quality is poor. I rate the audio 2 out of 5. Video quality is good. I rate it 3.5 out of 5. The AA DC-7 as an airliner? I rate it 4 out of 5. The DC-7C was probably a 4.5 out of 5 in the aft cabin. Always sit in the aft cabin of propeller driven airliners. . Less vibration and noise, generally. Delmonico Brussels Sprouts are cooked with bacon bits, diced tomato, chopped almonds and Manchego cheese. Manchego cheese is from Spain using sheep's milk. Pommes Parisienne are small potato balls oven roasted in herbs and butter. Lamb chops? Currently, airlines seldom serve lamb as the majority of passengers do not eat lamb. Ever.

Surprisingly, crew & passengers, all caucasion . . . the Good ol' Days ? Aaack, 😱 Thank God, I missed that 'purity' !

parents don't let there kids have the window seats

Now I dress like a asshole in sweats. Times were different.

Notice theres none of us black people in none of these jobs then. Sad. Since we created flying .

And how did Americans travelling become so sloppy? Compare the changes in 60'years.

The passengers are starting to check in.......the passengers who are shortly going TO DIE IN A FLAMING CRASH, their dismembered bodies scattered over 5 acres of Kansas farmland!

My father was a captain for American he started as a mechanic when the DC-2 arrived they decided to train some of the mechanics as copilots so on small stops if they had a problem they also had a mechanic and copilots were also baggage handlers. We took this flight in the summer of 1958 only due to very high head winds we were force to make a stop for extra fuel making it almost 10 hours but still a lot smoother and quieter than the DC-6 we had flown on the year before which took 13 hours and 3 stops. I was 8 at the time I grew up and flew 26 years for a major airline but it was never like these golden days -I say it was the people- it was a different world. The 747 changed the world in many ways not all of them for the better.

My first airplane ride on this very flight, Idlewild (now JFK) to LA, 12 yrs old, 1959. I got to ride in the cockpit for a while, and even helped the stewardesses serve breakfast to the passengers! I recall there was some turbulence so I had to return to my seat. 60 years ago, and I remember it like it was 5 minutes ago. Always had sweet spot for AA as a result.

Oh my gosh, does this ever bring back memories. I was 4 years old in 1958, first time I flew on one of these with my parents. The stewardesses were drop dead gorgeous, I was in love at 4 years old. What I remember is the noise and the smoke from the engines when they first started up. But the stewardesses were so good at making sure everyone stayed calm; lots of chewing gum in a silver tray took care of that back then. And airsickness!

I worked for Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica as a machinist in the 1960’s. Even in 1966 we were still making replacement parts for the DC-3 thru DC7. My first flight was in 1950 at three years old. We moved from New York to Los Angeles and flew one of the first non stop flights from Idyllwild on a Super Constellation.

I flew on one of these from Toronto to Chicago, to Omaha, to Denver, and then had to switch to a DC-6 due to a gear failure in the DC-7, for the remaining flight to SFO. I remember that the DC-6 felt "old" in comparison to the DC-7. I was 8 years old in the spring of 1960, at that time. What a memory. Thanks.

Growing up in the 40's and 50's I lived under the southern approach to KPIT. I'd see dozens of airliners flying over every day - Douglass, Lochkeed, Martin - plus military C-119's. They were so commonplace that we didn't even react to the drone of them passing over. Then, when the jet age began and we began hearing the 707's and F-106's going over it was an occasion worthy of running outside to see them. Eventually the day came when the big radials were no more except for the occasional cargo DC-3 or 404. Now, the only props we hear are the big C-130's, or private aircraft going to KAGC where we're on the downwind approach, or takeoff paths.

The last prop engined plane before the introduction of the DC-8. This model was just about the last drop of technology that could be squeezed out of prop shaft cylinder engines. 365 mph is not bad for this technology. But the travel time was nearly cut in half with the Jet DC-8. From 8 hrs to a bit over 4.

Look at that. They're actually washing down the plane prior to flight and preparing real food!

Forgot to say Thanks for uploading this.

Let's see, no TCAS, Weather Radar, laptop, 100% analogue instruments. And yet, you flew in style,.

You could tell a non stop coast to coast flight was still a 'big deal'...at 24:00, with the Mercury sign, they have New York, U. S. and California flags.

Wow! Air travel has gone a long ways in the 70 yrs since this video was made! This era was also the beginning of the end for piston powered airlines and the last great decade of ocean Liners!

What a fascinating video. You can see why it was the golden age of airline travel.

And then Boeing changed everything with the 707.

"One GIRL-and her quick (little) Reservisor". They were not even called "computers" then. They were "a battery of BUSINESS MACHINES" . Like looking at another planet in a galaxy far- far away. Lived a 1/2 hour drive from IDLEWILD AIRPORT, Queens, NYC. Been there -did that...

That foood looked good.... Not like the crap today

VFR in class A airspace. What a thing!

Its amazing how much has changed... 7 minutes to get off the ground in JFK! Cancelling IFR when you get on top of the clouds! 6 tracks across the country!

We have the same number of landings as takeoff's. Well that is a concept.

Flew Flt 1 many times, either in a DC-10 or a 767.