In the 1970s, the global airline industry experienced a decade of rapid growth stimulated by the advent of the “Jet Age,” beginning in the late 1950s and accelerating through the 1960s. A gigantic new jet aircraft, the Boeing 747, which was essentially twice as large as any previous airliner, entered service in January of 1970. The piston-to-jet transition was well in hand, with 1970 also being the year that the last U.S. “trunk” carrier finally stopped using aircraft with that type of propulsion. Other widebodies, including the McDonnell-Douglas DC-10, the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, and later, the Airbus A300, also began appearing at airports in the 1970s.
It was a significant decade for other developments too, and not all positive. The 1973–74 “oil shock,” which initially restricted fuel supplies and later caused the oil price to rise significantly, pushed many older airliners into retirement. But despite this bump in the road, the passenger side of the airline business continued on a dramatic rise, and there were major new entrants in the air cargo field as well. Richly illustrated and impeccably researched, Decades of the Airliners: The 1970s tells the complete story of this exhilarating decade in airline history.
250 colour illustrations
