First Jet Flight

Tu-104 was put into operation until the middle of the 70s. Perhaps like no other technological innovation, the jet power plant revolutionised aviation around the planet. In contrast to the old propeller-driven airplanes, which were propelled by reciprocating motors, jet airplanes could operate at enormous velocities and thus shorten the journey times. The U.S. as well as civilian aviation companies found these skills appealing in the years after the Second Word War, when global contact spread all over the United States.

However, there were serious doubts about the transfer of propulsion system technologies to the civil aircraft area. Consequently, in the immediate post-war years, US airlines did not encourage the construction of jet airlines and pursued a wait-and-see strategy before taking this high-risk route. For the first time, the UK airline BOAC (British Overseas Aircraft Corporation) put a civil aircraft into operation.

De Havilland's 36-seater Comet 1 was first flown on 27 July 1949. On 2 May 1952 LOAC opened the world's first jet business. From London to Johannesburg, South Africa, the first flight had stations in Rome, Beirut, Khartoum (in Sudan), Entebbe (in Kenya) and Livingstone at the Victoria Falls.

The Comet allowed travelers to conveniently fly at 772 kilometres per hour or 480 mph, making it a revolution in aviation. Unfortunately, the comet was the victims of a series of unfortunate casualties, and BOAC discontinued its flight within two years. Pan American Airways had already ordered the new 76-seater Comet 3 in 1952, but the accident of the former Comet cast doubts on the deal.

At this point, US firms had started their own jet construction programmes. A number of things, such as improvements in engine performance, persuaded these firms to rethink their original restraint in building passenger aircraft. Pan America, regarded by the U.S. administration as the "chosen instrument" to serve the U.S. airline industry abroad, was without doubt a trailblazer in the introduction of Jet Aviation.

The airline's iconic CEO, Juan Trippe, had early shown great interest in a jet airliner that could fly non-stop across the North Atlantic. After Trippe had seen the British comet's pale promises faded, he pitted two of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the country, Boeing and Douglas.

They competed to meet Pan American's needs and provided the Boeing 707 and DC-8. Trippe concluded agreements with both firms in October 1955 for the purchase of 45 of these aircraft (20 707 and 25 DC-8). Two years later, Boeing introduced the first functional 707, a Boeing 707-120, and on 26 October 1958, Pan American opened its New York-London line to great acclaim, heralding a new age in the annals of commercial air travel.

The very first flight to Newfoundland, which made a short stop, had 111 passangers, the highest number ever taken on a regular flight. Bus prices amounted to $272, which is roughly what one would have expected for a reciprocating motor flight across the Atlantic. First BOAC fiercely contested with Pan American.

To prevent the Americans, BOAC had opened its own Atlantic Transat on October 4, 1958, just three week before Pan American. Pan American began a time of almost undisputed prosperity in the global aviation business with the rapid growth of the Boeing 707, particularly on the Atlantic crossing.

For example, the carrier was the first to recognise the importance of non-stop long haul travel for travellers; it was negotiating with Boeing a 707 that could operate for extended periods without refuelling, the so-called 707-320. On 26 August 1959, the carrier introduced a genuine international traffic network with non-stop services from London to New York.

It was a perfectly good case for a market-dominating airline to play the leading roll in the definition of the features of a new category of jet that the sector would manufacture. Finally, the 707-320 was used by up to eleven other carriers within one year. In the United States, National was the first airline to begin jet services with Boeing 707s on December 10, 1958.

On January 25, 1959, American Airways provided the first inland jet flight with its own airplane from New York to Los Angeles. American had a great deal of competition with this coast-to-coast airline; the other two large US carriers, Trans World Airline (TWA) and United Airline, had not expected the upcoming use of jet planes for home flights.

The TWA quickly managed to make up ground, and with a Boeing 707 it entered the coast-to-coast flight business in March 1959. However, not all carriers used the Boeing 707. He had unparalleled expertise in the construction of the best commercial aircraft in the industry. In September 1959, United and Delta both began to fly the DC-8 commercial jet to the home aircraft markets, just because they relied on Douglas to introduce Boeing aircraft.

In January 1960, Eastern Airlines teamed up with them in the field of jet fuel for inland flights. Among the most uncommon features of the upcoming jet age was the rate at which international carriers used these new planes. Not least because of the model of Pan American, air carriers from all over the globe are replacing reciprocating engines with jet engines at an unparalleled rate.

Indeed, Aeroflot was honored to offer the Tupolev Tu-104, the world's first regular, plannable and sustainable jet aviation services. In September 1956 Aeroflot opened the Moscow to Irkutsk department (in the Far Eastern part of the Russian Federation). Elsewhere, in 1961, only three years after Pan Am's first jet flight, jet planes flew over the North and South Atlantic and the Pacific, in the USA, Europe and Eastern Asia, North-South America and Europe-Africa routs, Europe-Australia and even to the Arctic.

Air carriers such as Air France, Lufthansa (Germany), KLM (Netherlands), Iberia (Spain), QANTAS (Australia), SABENA (Belgium), Air India, SAS (Scandinavia), Swissair, El Al (Israel) and JAL (Japan) used the Boeing 707, the DC-8 or, to a smaller extent, the Corvair CV-880 jet on large domestic outings. Though many other carriers were the first to provide scheduled flights on various destinations around the world, it was Pan American Airways that established the standard for servicing in the new jet age.

The groundbreaking Pan American Boeing relationship, its aggressive itineraries - such as the Weltjetservice launched in October 1959 - its eye-catching promotional campaign and its call for good customer care made it a market and trend-setter marketer. The Jet Tour has revolutionised the way people fly around the globe. JetTravel forced them to set a much higher standard of servicing for the airline companies, requiring better equipment on the floor and well-trained staff.

Flight offers greater passenger convenience, less fuss and, above all, less travelling times. Again, as with the advent of reciprocating internal combustion engine technologies in the 1920' s, a new technological breakthrough made the global market even smaller. Fly in America: Davies, R. E. G. Airlines of the United States Seit 1914.

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