80 years and counting

"On May 15, 1930, the world's first stewardess took to the sky and changed the air travel experience forever. She and seven other nurses were the industry's first professional flight attendants. They were hired to calm and comfort customers who were apprehensive about flying in those early days. Much like today, they were safety experts, emergency responders, service professionals, mediators and counselors.

"First Stewardess" Ellen Church began the journey from San Francisco to Chicago. Four stewardesses -- one for each assigned segment -- were staged along the flight’s route to complete the 13-stop, 20-hour trip on a Boeing 80A with 14 seats."

With our number 1 Flight Attendant having flown with United for over 50 years, just imagine all he has seen (yes our number 1 is a "He") through the years. All the changes, improvements, technological advances that we take for granted today, he experienced it all first hand.

In my 15 years with the company, the changes I have seen touch mostly work rules, onboard service and duties. The aircrafts have been the same with different paint jobs and cabin interiors. I have always wondered why we did not invest in making a cheaper version of the Concorde. Unveiled in the 60s that aircraft was an amazing feat of technology. The fastest commercial jetliner ever built. It became evident rather quickly though that the cost of flying that machine would not make it accessible to a lot of people. It became a sign of luxury until it was merely a sign of patriotic British and French spirit. But we never tried to improve on the Concorde. Instead we offered a "better inflight experience"
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The Airbus A380 (which we are not getting) is the only new big change in commercial aviation in years just because of it's size. The Dreamliner Boeing 787 is still going through testing and its delivery has been delayed over and over. We are scheduled to acquire some Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 in a few years but with the looming merger with Continental I am not sure how much of our long term planning is and will still be relevant.