SQ Nostalgia

[yflyer]

Wear masks, everyone! Your safety depends on it!



Of course the masks in the pic above are emergency oxygen masks, snapped during a rare manual safety demo only done on SQ flights if the IFE safety video is inoperable.

I do look back fondly on the days when manual safety demos were the norm. Perhaps SQ should adopt the practice, which some other airlines do, where cabin crew do a live safety demo at the same time that a recorded safety video is being played.

During this period where almost all of us are grounded, feel free to add on to this thread, and share any pictures or anecdotes from your past travels...

[Avenger777]

Wear masks, everyone! Your safety depends on it!
I do look back fondly on the days when manual safety demos were the norm. Perhaps SQ should adopt the practice, which some other airlines do, where cabin crew do a live safety demo at the same time that a recorded safety video is being played.

But that would mess up their perfect french twist! lol

[yflyer]

During the current Circuit Breaker period, there has been a lot of time to rummage through old cupboards.

Mrs yflyer found some old magazines and newspapers. It was interesting to flip through the brown, tattered pages, many of which dated from before she and I were even born.

We found this ad for MSA (Malaysia-Singapore Airlines)...



Looking at the route map, my first thought was: where was Jesselton? I had never heard of this place. A quick Google search revealed that this was the old name for Kota Kinabalu.

This ad was from a Straits Times Supplement from 9 August, 1967, just two years after the birth of the nation of Singapore in 1965.



Very early days for the country, but even then, reading the articles within, one could already see the blueprint of Singapore being laid.

Some other articles of interest:

An article around Paya Lebar Airport, and how this airport was preparing for "Jumbo Jets", as well as the huge investment in radar for air trafflc in the region...



Also articles on the economy and industrial regions in Singapore, such as Jurong, showing a map of the island, which is now quite different...



Another article about how tourism could be big business (Who would have thought? ), and even a brief discussion of the possibility of casinos (In 1967!)...



Some ads showing scenes and buildings which still exist today...

Prima Flour Mills...still going strong even to this day...



And MPH...while the building still remains, the bookstore where I spent many childhood weekends is no longer there...



What is also striking about the ads are the 5 digit phone numbers, and one or two digit postal codes...

And an article about land reclamation in Bedok, which was just starting out at that point...



...a tantalizing glimpse of the land reclamation that would eventually enable the building of Changi Airport in the eastern part of Singapore!

[SQ777]

Did MSA really fly between Perth and Sydney?? Was it a tag-on or was the domestic sold separately?

Interesting, you always learn something new.

[wlgspotter]

Wow very ice @yfler. I, too, wondered where is Jesselton, and did a Google as well!

Also learnt that MPH actually meant Malaysia Publishing House - never knew that...

As always, you learn something new each day...

[SQ228]

Did MSA really fly between Perth and Sydney?? Was it a tag-on or was the domestic sold separately?

Interesting, you always learn something new.

I noticed that as well. I’ll state clearly that my knowledge of Australian aviation history is rather basic but I’d be amazed if within its reputation of regulation that a foreign carrier had been permitted to sell domestic tickets. I am fairly certain that none are allowed even now.

My guess is that Perth was largely a refuelling stop for planes that couldn’t make the full distance to Sydney but that they could set down or pick up international pax while on the ground. Considering the size of Perth back then compared with Sydney, I think most passengers would have been heading to/from Sydney anyways.

[yflyer]

Did MSA really fly between Perth and Sydney?? Was it a tag-on or was the domestic sold separately?

They apparently did!

Based on this news article from the archives of the SMH, MSA used Comets for SIN-PER twice weekly, and a chartered 707 (Perhaps chartered from Qantas?) for SIN-PER-SYD once a week.

The SMH archive search result threw up this result (Searches are free, but to download the full archived article, there is a fee).



Here's a gorgeous Kodachrome picture of an MSA Comet, 9V-BAU, from the Flickr collection of Rob Rindt taken in 1967 from Don Mueang (Then BKK)...



The quality of the Kodachrome slide film used is just stunning. From the sharpness and vividness of the colours, it looks as if the Comet picture was taken yesterday, and not 53 years ago.

Lots of other great pics in his Flickr albums here and here. Another article on the history of Kodachrome can be found here.

[SQ777]

They apparently did!

Based on this news article from the archives of the SMH, MSA used Comets for SIN-PER twice weekly, and a chartered 707 (Perhaps chartered from Qantas?) for SIN-PER-SYD once a week.

The SMH archive search result threw up this result (Searches are free, but to download the full archived article, there is a fee).

Thanks for digging that out, yflyer! Fascinating to see how these develop. I will definitively check out SMH. Do keep these insights coming

[yflyer]

Slightly OTT, but on the same theme of airline nostalgia, in the same pile of old magazines there were 2 copies of LIFE magazine, from 1962 and 1969. Magazine contents aside, it was quite interesting to browse through the airline ads in the magazines as well. Although MSA was not among the airline ads, we did see some from other Asian carriers like Japan Airlines. Thai and Air India.

Here are some of them, starting with the ads in the 1962 magazine, which was a special double edition, themed "A Pictorial Atlas for the Space Age"...



Right inside the cover was a large ad spread for Pan Am (An airline which I never had the privilege of flying)...



(Large version of pic here.)

In 1962, you flew Pan Am's "Jet Clipper", which was the then leading edge Boeing 707, in either First Class or Economy Class. The round the world fare back then was as low as USD1249. Of course these were 1962 dollars...a princely sum back then I think.

In the ad, there is a small route map, which appears to show Singapore and/or Jakarta as Pan Am destinations in the 1960's. I was intrigued by this and Googled Pan Am Singapore, and found this short film depicting Pan Am destinations Hong Kong and Singapore. The Youtube video can be found here. There are some interesting scenes of Singapore from 1960 in the video.

A few pages later, I saw this ad for Sheraton Hotels, which at the time was mainly a US hotel chain, with an overseas expansion just beginning in 1962, with a hotel in Tel Aviv.



Next, an ad from SAS, titled "Is the Prime Minister on this flight?"...



There was also an ad from United Airlines, which focused on both the frequency of United flights taking off ("Every ten minutes...") but also "quality of service" (On United, imagine that!)...



The row of clock faces in the United ad reminds me of Changi Airport's installation art piece, A Million Times at Changi.

I actually missed Air India's ad the first time I flipped through the magazine because it was so unlike other airline ads....



Lufthansa's full colour 2-page ad spread made quite an impression: A great picture of a Boeing 707 to satisfy the plane geeks, with a row of crew in front (All identified by name!)...



(Large version of picture here)

I also found the LH ad notable because of how the route network was depicted like a subway line map.

[yflyer]

This TWA ad focused more on US domestic destinations...



A KLM ad which took great pains to emphasize that the featured customer feedback received (via typewritten letter) was authentic...you could head to KLM HQ and obtain a photocopy of the original customer feedback. Those were the days before fake news, fake reviews/ratings or fake advertising...



Also notable in the KLM ad was that while other airline ads in this 1962 magazine featured jets like the 707 or DC-8, in the KLM ad the cabin pictured was First Class on the propeller-era Lockheed Electra.



(Picture credit: Ryolf Per)

BOAC's ad focused on their extensive route network.



(Large version of pic here.)

And finally, an ad from Boeing, featuring the 707...

[yflyer]

Turning the clock to January 1969...

This was an issue of the Asian edition of LIFE magazine, featuring pictures from Apollo 8, published just months before the Apollo 11 moon landings...



A 2 page spread from KLM, on their 50th anniversary, featuring a DC-8...



In 1969, Northwest Orient (Which became Northwest Airlines, and then part of Delta) already had an extensive network of Asian destinations...



In this issue, Pan Am's ad promised to transport you to New York in an "instant"...



Thai International's ad focused on service: their ad featured one of their cabin crew...



...and so did Japan Airlines' ad...



To conclude...

Swissair must win the award for the geekiest airline ad of all time, featuring just the 169 step pre-take off checklist for their DC-8...what were they thinking?



Stay safe, everyone!

[Stratoliner777]

Thank you for these lovely pieces of nostalgia! Ah, the Jet Age...!

[yflyer]

Thank you for these lovely pieces of nostalgia! Ah, the Jet Age...!

It was quite an amazing era for travel, wasn't it?

[yflyer]

Here is a promo film for the Concorde from 1973, with Singapore playing a small cameo appearance as one of the stops on this film titled, "The 24 Hour World"...

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You can go straight to the spot where Singapore appears, around the 23 minute mark, here. The film extract appears to be from a Concorde sales tour of Asia in 1972.

I was looking for films from the actual Concorde service between London and Singapore, via Bahrain, but could not locate any. This was a joint service between BA and SQ, and operated between 1977 and 1980. A brief write-up on these Concorde operations can be found here.



(Picture Credit: Rob Rindt)

[SQ777]

I was looking for films from the actual Concorde service between London and Singapore, via Bahrain, but could not locate any. This was a joint service between BA and SQ, and operated between 1977 and 1980.

This scene from the 7-part 1979 BBC series Diamonds in the Sky has some footage of the inflight service on the BA/SQ Concorde segment from Paya Lebar to Bahrain. The same episode also has some scenes of Singapore from those days and its transformation to "Aviation City" (incl. Changi construction, the SQ cabin crew training centre, and behind-the-scenes shooting of a SQ Ad).

Episode 6 provides some insight into background negotiations with Gulf states to secure overflight rights for the London to Singapore Concorde service.

The whole 7-part series is well worth a watch. SQ crops up in a few of the other episodes as well, including the presenter walking on the wing of a brand new SQ 747!