Jet age
:''This page describes a period in 20th century social and aviation history. For the music album by the group
The Superjesus, see
Jet Age (music album).
The
jet age is a common description of an historical period beginning with the introduction of
airliners powered by
turbojets and
turbofans for
scheduled passenger service.
The
De Havilland Comet was the first jet airliner to fly a scheduled route in
1952, but the original version of the Comet had serious design problems leading to several highly-publicised crashes, and the entire fleet was eventually grounded (the Comet later reemerged in improved versions). The first truly successful jet airliner was the
Boeing 707, which began service in
1958 on the
New York City to
London route; 1958 was also the first year that more trans-Atlantic passengers travelled by airline than ship.
Large aircraft powered by
turbine engines are able to fly much higher, faster, and further than older
piston-powered
propliners, making transcontinental and inter-continental travel considerably faster and easier: for example, aircraft leaving North America and crossing the
Atlantic Ocean (and later, the
Pacific Ocean) could now fly to their destinations non-stop, making much of the world accessible within a single day's travel for the first time. Since large jetliners could also carry more passengers, airfares also declined (relative to
inflation), so more people of more different social classes were able to travel outside of their own countries. In many ways, these changes in mobility are similar to those brought about by
railroads during the
19th century.
The introduction of the
Concorde supersonic passenger for regular service in
1976 was expected to bring similar social changes, but the aircraft never found commercial success, and flights were discontinued in
2003. When the
Airbus A380 begins service, it will offer a higher capacity and will introduce recreational facilities to long-distance flight, possibly bringing further social changes.
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Jet set
