Well, for better or for worse the days of glamour in airline travel are gone...and i can only agree most profoundly with pan-am-clipper-girl with regards being born a few decades toooo late.
Just once and for the hell of it I took an upgrade on the BA heathrow-Dullas route (which i used to fly about four times a year before moving stateside full time last year) to prem Buisness class... Not at all what i had hoped for! just slightly more leg room and better wine BUT NO EXTRA PAMPERING!!!!! NO SEPERATE GATES, SHOE SHINE BOYS, Champaigne lounges arrrrrr!
My late father flew all over in the early 60's while he worked in the Brit Oil industry... his old stories darn near make me cry when i think of all the class and style that are now lost.
(sob)
Ps.. F.A.O Lips:
Going supersonic is no big deal in itself... its the 3 hour flight time across the atlantic and the shape of the big steal swan flying over Reigate in surrey as she used to come in to land that Made her so special... I lived on her flight path from age 1yr to 10yrs (then moved north).
As for hovering... until you have flown observer with a pilot who knows his (or her) S#$t at ten feet and 140knts in a westland lynx- BETWEEN trees, cows, penguins and startled sheep farmers- you have not lived! Harriers are cool... and great to have on hand (we grunts love to know your on call in weather that the fastboys consider bad for their health) in extremitis... Then again, I have never been up in one, so i guess im open to re-education if the chance ever came up...but at 6ft 4" id never fit in one!