A Century Of Change
As we continue our centenary celebrations, we look at how the world of aviation has changed in the last 100 years…
To say that the face of aviation has changed beyond recognition over the past hundred years is accurate yet still an understatement. With about 500,000 people estimated to be in the air at any given time today, flying has become a much more accessible mode of transport than in the 1920s when astronomically high fees restricted flying to affluent passengers.
The interior of aircraft has changed dramatically too. Cabins in the 1920s were loud and cold as planes were constructed of uninsulated metal sheets that shook in the wind.
While the very first scheduled commercial passenger service set off between Tampa, Finland and St Petersburg in 1914, it took until the 1920s for commercial flights to really gain ground. The lack of commercial activity in aviation was reflected in the state of world airports at the turn of the 1920s, with the vast majority simply being open fields and dirt strips. Hydrogen-filled airships, now commonly known as blimps, began to dominate the skies after the close of the First World War in 1919, and it was with the help of these aviatic giants that world flying records were broken.
By 1929, the first round-the-world