Introduction| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Conclusion

Every plane has it's story of becoming, being, and retiring. Early planes were designed to get passengers off the ground and safely to their destination, little thought was given to the idea of community - it wasn't practical. However as the experience of flight developed so too did the spacial designs of planes, affecting not only the way passengers communicated with one another, but the ways in which passengers communicated with stewardesses (later flight attendants), and stewardesses communicated with each other. This is the story of spatial design and its effects on the ways in which stewardesses worked, participated and created the experience of flight.

Aviation was the great experiment of the early 20th century. From canvass wings, to steel propellers, machines that could fly captured the attention of the public. Throughout much of the first half of the century the sky was a rugged male space trespassed occasionally by a few flying female renegades, including Amelia Earhart, Bessie Coleman, and Jackie Cochran. Early commercial flights were created as an experiment to transport mail for the United States postal service. Almost half of the pilots who flew these early routes died in crashes and the few passengers who purchased the ride, sat on makeshift seats in between sacks of mail. Inflight service consisted of sip from a shared thermos of coffee. These early passengers experienced flight raw and rough, and yet transcending gravity’s supposed limits was a shining luxury. As the growing industry determined that it would be profitable to capitalize on passenger transport they began attempts to create an experience that would compete with transportation by train. Much of the passenger experience and the work of the stewardesses and flight attendants was affected by the spatial design of the interior of the plane.

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Introduction| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Conclusion