As we’ve noted, modern air travel leaves a lot to be desired, tarmac delays and all. But we’ve come a long way since the 1940s, when nurses were brought on board to calm jittery passengers anticipating a bumpy ride in unpressurized planes. I was reminded of the marvels of jet-age flight while visiting a new exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, America by Air, which traces the history of passenger air travel since 1914. 

The exhibit is part social history—it addresses racial segregation at airports in the 1950s, for example—and part technological showcase, offering views into cockpits of three different eras. But the big crowd-pleaser is a hulking nose section of a 1970 Boeing 747, jutting out from a museum wall: A group of Chinese tourists ahead of me stood entranced by the hundreds of lights and switches encasing the cockpit.

For me, highlights included the 1970s flight attendant uniforms (I feel for the Air California staff saddled with orange capes and tassled sombreros) and a nifty NASA computer simulation tracking a day in the life of U.S. air travel, from FedEx flights out of Memphis in the early morning through late day northeast flights headed for Europe. Air traffic on Sept. 11, 2001 is also shown. As I watched the thousands of tiny green airplanes divert from the East coast, then disappear from the screen altogether, I felt a chill recalling how time stood still that day.

Related on World Hum:
* What’s Your Dream Airline?
* The Freakonomics Quorum on Air Travel