>>14036>why? whats the difference to today?of the 7 airlines visible in those pictures, only 2 still exist today. every other one merged into American Airlines. Not that AA is uniquely bad, United and Delta have eaten an equally large number of once independent carriers too. Since pic related was made, United merged with Continental and American merged with US Airways. Not helping matters is that airlines tend to make their paintschemes more bland over time, partially in line with minimalist design trends and partially because the more white the plane is, the cheaper it is to repaint it and lease it to other airlines when you don't need it.
of the plane models pictured, none remain in passenger service in the US today. Again there has been a reduction in the diversity of types: Every single plane pictured, whether it's got two decks or one, two engines, three, or four, a pointy nose or a rounded one, a T-shaped tail or a conventional tail, etc, would now be replaced by a plane with two gigantic engines stuck under the wings and a pointy nose. this is a side effect of basic physics, but it's still something that makes the world less interesting to live in.
>Also why does flying suck now?the main reason the quality of service has dropped is deregulation. until the late 1970s airlines weren't allowed to compete by cutting their ticket prices, so they competed on offering the best service possible. the catch was that flying was very expensive, since airlines could pass all their operating costs on to the customer. with the increased competition since then, economy class service has been cut down to keep costs low while first class service has focused less on food, entertainment, etc, and more on stuff like lie-flat seats or greater frequency of flights. since in most cases business travellers aren't too concerned about the quality of meals - although a few international airlines still offer higher quality, highly expensive service in first class.