An ad for the DC-8 in Life magazine (April 1, 1957): What will it be like to fly in a jet? Your first jet flight will add a most meaningful dimension to your life—a new measurement of time and space. You settle in your deep, soft seat in the graceful plane with the swept-back wings. A short, swift run—and you are airborne. The nose points up eagerly and the earth drops away below you. You climb steadily, serenely, quietly. The muted sound of the jets falls quickly behind, for in the DC-8 you move almost as fast as the speed of sound itself. The splendor of the stratosphere Up you go—up, up beyond the limits of today’s planes. Up seven miles from the earth, and now almost eight. You level off in the stratosphere. And even though the DC-8 puts half a mile behind you with every breath you draw, you feel no sensation of speed or flight. Just outside your window the temperature in the thin air is 60 degrees below zero. But the air in the cabin has the soft touch of a June day, fresh and sweet and comfortable. The view of the earth moving lazily and distantly below is exhilarating, with glimpses of fields and towns and mountains in miniature, or silver stretches of the seas. Up this high, too high for the longest fingers of weather to touch you, you sense a tranquility, a detached peacefulness, a freedom of spirit. You share a feeling of majesty with the sun and moon, often seen hanging in the sky together. During the day, the sky is an ocean of shining blue. In the evening, the blue deepens into dark velvet. The moon sends forth its milky light. The stars loom larger and brighter, and you are enthralled by the ghostly radiance of the night sky. Witness to a miracle Now, almost unnoticeably, you are descending from your secret corner of the sky—down to earth again. On the ground, you realize how far you’ve come in how short a time. Realize, too, that you have witnessed—and even played a part in—one of the miracles of our age…the miracle of commercial jet flight through the stratosphere to distant places; so swift, so convenient, so beautiful and rewarding as to leave all other ways of travel in its wake forevermore.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 12:25:14 +0000