As more people fly, less to fly for

Press, 26 July 1980, Page 17

As more people fly, less to fly for

Diamonds fn the Sky: A Social History of Air travel. By Kenneth Hudson and Julian Pettifer. Bodley Head, 1979, 235 pp. Bibliography and index. $24.95, (Reviewed by Les Bloxharn) Air travel as it has been- enjoyed or endured by ; passengers- for thei. last /0 years has at last been accorded the . attention it deserves. This informative ; and comprehensive account ot commercial aviation is based on a 8.8. C. television series produced last year and presented by One the authors, Julian Pettifer. Mr Pettifer and ■ his fellow-author, Kenneth Hudson, a social historian, have . concentrated not on the mechanical marvels of the flying machines, but have contributed long-missing pages . to the annals of aviation history by remembering the oft-forgotten ■ passengers who “have taken ~ their courage in both hands and decided, to fly-” ' Before World War I the potential of ’ commercial aviation was barely recognised, except in Germany where civilian passenger flying began in 1909 with the highly organised, .efficient operation of airships. At the . same time joy-riding fired the imagination of a few British and American dare-devils who were reckless enough to agree m writing to not sue the aeroplane .owner in the event of an accident. With the outbreak of war many of the joyriders went on to lose their lives, m the Royal Flying Corps, but commercial, aviation only .began develop in earnest m 1919 when 10,000 holidaymakers at Blackpool paid a ’ guinea a head for a short, jaunt in converted war-time Avro trainers. The , experiment proved that people who ■ had been chary “after reading of the ! perils of aviation in the press, soon I. lost their fears. The first commercial

London-Paris flight took place that same summer.

The transition from the 1920 s and 19305, when air travel was the domain of the adventurous and privileged few, to the present day when the elite are more likely to decide to stay at home, makes for fascinating reading. In the space of a lifetime aviation has leapt from the pioneering days when pilots carried chewing gum with which to stop an oil leak (if the occasion arose) to today’s computer-controlled air transportation, which relies so heavily on computers that, the authors were forbidden by United Airlines to reveal the exact location of its Apollo computer because, without it, “the airline simply would not function.” “Diamonds in the Sky” contains a wealth of anecdotal gems. For instance, when T.W.A. first introduced hostesses to its services in 1933 the move was vigorously opposed by the airline’s rugged, gun-toting pilots and their jealous wives. Two years later the Dutch airline, K.L.M. had to abandon its hostess scheme after only a few months trial because of the number of marriage proposals. Flight deck mysteries are also revealed. In 1962 a nervous flight engineer was ordered to show a Congressional sub-committee numerous photographs he had taken during flights of pilots sleeping, reading, and embracing hostesses, and once, even of a donkey wandering around a plane in flight. New . Zealanders flying with Continental Airlines who marvel at watching American television as they approach -Honolulu and Los Angeles might be interested to learn that, 40 years ago, T.W.A. ’ allowed its passengers to tune into local radio stations. Likewise, the modern trend towards sleeperettes ’ and . : dining lounges was fairly common on the

long, but much slower, flights of the 19305. The leap from the past to the present has not been made without cost to the world at large and to the passengers. The new nomadism has brought a bag of mixed blessings to developing countries such as Gambia, where the prostitution of young males has resulted.. from the charter-flight influx of' middle-aged Scandanavian women who'' solicit openly and pay handsomely. The authors outline the disturbing social trends that are occurring in the remotest areas of the world as a result of mass tourism and warn that even a place like Tonga is not ' safe from. the “pathetic and dangerous” delusions that an international airport can provide the answers for an .economically poor society.

The authors perceptively allude to the fact that the greater the number that fly, the less there is to fly for. They emphasise that the aviation industry has brought catastrophes as well as benefits to humanity and warn that “seeds Of destruction" are contained within the alliance between aviation and tourism (or “solarism" as they unflatteringly label the pursuit of guaranteed sunshine). As for the future, the authors believe that airports, the worst part of air travel, will have to be radically improved to ease the inexperienced passenger’s lot. Major changes will have to come in the areas of weather delays, baggage handling, and citycentre transport. However, they suspect that the future will see passengers loading their own luggage and unpacking their own sandwiches while looking back wistfully at the golden seventies. . The book sounds a final, pessimistic note about the effects of the fuel crisis on aviation trends.