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> Travel

Nostalgia! Remembering the golden days of flying… (pics)

Reminiscing about the good old days of travel

Newsroom December 18 09:18

Fifty years ago airline travel was less about function and more about fun and glamor. Smoking was encouraged and booze was a must as people stirred their dry martinis in the sky.

Remember old Olympic Airways:

Then there were the cocktail lounges with plush carpet:

 

On board an United Airlines Boeing 747, the lounge area is decked out with leather seating where you can get table service at tea time

After the party has gone? This lounge's seats are covered in some misinterpretation of animal prints while the carpets are a bright orange

The colours are much more toned back in this lounge. The guests, wearing fabulous 1970s outfits, sit and chat to each other in diagonally arranged seats

The lounge on board an Avianca Airlines' (Colombia's national carrier) Boeing 747 is much more subtle and wouldn't look out of place in a wine bar today

A thin curtain is all that divides the very spacious First Class cabin from the Business Class cabin in this case but everyone has plenty of room to mingle

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Inside a Qantas Boeing 747, the nautical theme is blended in with the clashing colours of the upholstery. In the back, a poster of Captain Cook hangs proudly in the pride of place

Is this really inside a plane? With armchairs facing into the a coffee table, plenty of head and no seat belts, this could just as likely be on the groundContinental Airlines' have opted for a contrasting purple and mustard yellow for their Boeing 747 lounge

 If you look closely, you can spot the emergency exit sign just over the seats behind the curtain on this Air France Boeing 707-320 - very much unlike the emergency exits we have today and the whole aesthetic looks more like a caravan than an aeroplane lounge

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