FLASHBACK

London, 1928.

Little wonder most people abbreviate the name of the world’s oldest operating airline to KLM;

Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij hardly rolls off the tongue. But the Netherlands-based Royal Aviation Company (as that ungainly Dutch moniker translates) remains much talked about online— notably, it was the first in the industry to send flight information via Twitter, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. That trailblazing nature has always been part of the carrier’s DNA since its founding a century ago this October. As air travel took off, KLM set up the world’s first airline reservations and ticket office, and the company briefly upended gender stereotypes by accepting the services of famed Irish aviator Lady Heath. Pictured here with first pilot J. Scholte at London’s Croydon Airport, she volunteered for a few weeks in July 1928—making her the first woman to co-pilot a commercial flight (though in an unofficial capacity). Lady Heath was hoping to land a job with KLM on its upcoming 13,800-kilometer route between Amsterdam and Batavia (modern-day Jakarta), which, when it finally launched in 1931, became the longest-distance scheduled passenger service until the outbreak of World War II. A one-way trip in a newly built Fokker F.XII involved 81 hours of flying time and more than 20 stopovers spanning 10 days; thankfully, the same journey today has been whittled down to just 15 hours via Kuala Lumpur.