Airline Comfort In Days Gone By

The evolution of early airliner cabins showed how little the industry understood about the basics and how much they understood about the practicalities.

Airline Comfort In Days Gone By
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • The article reflects on airline passenger comfort from 90 years ago, using a historical photo likely depicting the interior of an Armstrong Whitworth Argosy airliner.
  • Early airliners featured rattan seats, which were considered "brilliant" for their time due to being light, inexpensive, replaceable, and able to withstand up to 2 Gs.
  • Despite rattan's current popularity in design, the article notes it is not expected to make a comeback in modern airliner cabins.
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Airline Comfort In Days Gone By

This week’s photo of the week is one we’re dusting off to reflect upon how far we’ve come in the 90 years since this photo was taken. As you might know, rattan is making a big comeback these days, but we’re thinking its future in airliner cabins is not so bright. But at the time, it was brilliant. Light, replaceable, able to withstand up to 2 Gs and cheap, those airline seats were everything a passenger of the day could ask for. We’ve been digging for info on this image, which we think is the interior of an Armstrong Whitworth Argosy airliner, one of the first aircraft operated by British Imperial airlines. Correct us if we’re wrong by emailing us at ppeditorial@madavor.com. 

Want to see more of our Photos of the Week? Check out “Oklahoma Mammatus” here.

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