What happened during the golden age of aviation?

Americans were wild about aviation in the 1920s and '30s, the period between the two world wars that came to be known as the Golden Age of Flight. Air races and daring record-setting flights dominated the news. Airplanes evolved from wood-and-fabric biplanes to streamlined metal monoplanes.



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Aviation's 'golden age': The 1950s and 1960s have now nostalgically become known as air travel's golden age. First class on a Pan Am flight: Not many could afford to sample the luxury on board. The most likely frequent flier was a white, male businessman traveling on his company's expense account.

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The most fatalities in any aviation accident in history occurred during 1977 in the Tenerife airport disaster, when 583 people were killed when two Boeing 747s collided on a runway.

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The oldest plane in service is from Nolinor Aviation, a charter airline in Canada, that operates a Boeing 737 that first went into use in 1976. Despite its age, this plane still works like any newer one due to numerous updates throughout the years.

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The worst crash year on record — 1972 — also had the most deaths: 2,429. The deadliest aviation accident in history didn't even occur in any of the top 10 years. In 1977, two Boeing 747s collided on a runway on the Spanish island of Tenerife, killing 583.

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The deadliest crash of the year was McDonnell Douglas MD-81 Inex Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, which crashed in the mountains of Corsica, France on December 1, with 180 passengers and crew. all died.

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The ICAO attributes the improvements in safety to the safety commitments shared across the industry. In fact, the trend across many years of aviation is that, today, it is safer than ever to fly.

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Security screenings didn't become mandatory until the early 1970s when bigger flights meant more passengers. Security screenings didn't become mandatory until 1973, and even those were pretty relaxed compared to the airport security we go through today, The Boston Globe reported.

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It had come back from the brink of one nose dive when the fatalsecond descent began, a plunge of 18,000 feet in 75 seconds intothe Pacific Ocean. “Ah, here we go” were pilot Thompson's last words.

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