One thing that is always hard to find are vintage historical cabin photos taken of aircraft during flight. If people actually took photos, they probably haven’t scanned them, so they are difficult to locate online.
They are a revelation though, as my previous article showing candid inflight cabin photos of the 707, DC-8, VC10 and Comet 4 proved. Here are a few more from the same era and they are just as wonderful as the others.
BEA Vickers Vanguard
The turboprop Vickers Vanguard was developed from the successful Vickers Viscount. Right at the top of this article is a cabin shot from 17 March 1968 showing the classy British European Airways interior.
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- Another view of the BEA Vickers Vanguard cabin on a busy flight.
Above is a different picture from August 1964, showing the interesting offset aisle between cabins. The large windows are evident here, as well as the lovely trim around the windows. Certainly more eye candy than today’s relatively uninspiring cabins.
Pan American Douglas DC-6B
Now we go back to the 1950s for a look inside a Pan Am Douglas DC-6B. These piston engine airliners were used throughout the airline’s network and the pre-jetset era cabin is really quite nice.
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- A very full flight on a Pan American Douglas DC-6B in the 1950s.
Blue seats and white head rest covers evoke the carrier’s livery, and the red curtains in the windows make for a nice vibe. The angled overhead rack makes the cabin look quite spacious. It also probably helps hold everything when there was turbulence – not uncommon at the comparatively low altitudes these planes flew at compared to today.
BEA Hawker Siddeley Trident 1C
The Hawker Siddeley Trident (originally the de Havilland Trident) should have been as popular as the American equivalent, the Boeing 727. However, meddling from the customer meant the size of the plane was reduced by the manufacturer, making it unattractive for most airlines. Even so the cabin, seen here in June 1967, is quite chic.
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- Very clean lines in this BEA HS-121 Trident 1C.
Notice how the seats in the foreground of the picture switch direction, which is something you very rarely see today. Everyone looks quite relaxed on this flight, to the point of boredom. Not much has changed there – for some people!
Overall Thoughts
I love seeing photos of vintage aircraft cabins filled with passengers. Not only is the styling and colour choices of the interior extremely interesting, but you also get to see the fashion from another era.
All of these pictures were taken by Dan Clark on Airliners.net and I am grateful he chose to take these and to put them online. They’re like little time capsules and fascinating ones at that.
Did you ever fly in a BEA Vanguard or Trident, or even a Pan American DC-6B? Do the pictures do it justice? What do you think of the pictures anyway? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or queries, please leave them below.
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Missed out on the DC-6B but first flight was on an Air Ceylon Trident 1E (CMB BOM) and flew AC’s Vanguard on CLE YYZ.
Great that you’ve managed both a Trident and a Vanguard! Two more than I have… relatively rare aircraft both of them, when you compare to the competition anyway!
Flew on a DC6-B on Olympic Airways March 1972–Athens/Crete and remember how “big” it was inside the cabin. In 1979 flew on a Trident Three Moscow/London–In Y class the cabin was packed with what may have been 3-2 seating. It was “tight” seating, even then.
I never expected the DC-6B to appear so spacious inside. You certainly got one very late in the piece, which must have been pretty cool. I think the Tridents also had 3-3 seating, which might be what you had… the cabin was 2cm wider than the Boeing 737 actually, but it might have felt tighter with the larger seats they had back then.
The pictures show the flights packed. That wasn’t the case really except for charters.
I hear you, I’ve heard flights usually weren’t particularly busy back in those days. Even so, there was no note to say these were, so could be charter, could just be a busy flight.