Setting Aviation Records

Back in the era when airline routes and fares were regulated, flight attendants were regulated also. They had to be young, single and beautiful. With specifications like that it was natural that a whole folklore would develop about their exploits that had nothing to do with aviation. The books and movies about their romantic escapades abounded. Ask any parent that worked at a major airline terminal in the fifties or sixties what their worse fear about their daughter was and you would get the same answer. She may decide to be a stewardess. It is hard to guess how many teenage girls got sent off to convents, boarding schools or family farms in Kansas because they mentioned that as their ambition.

Of course this stereotype was exaggerated. United Airlines and TWA both claimed to have a stewardess on their payroll that was a virgin. American Airlines and Delta both said the claim was untrue but no one could prove it one way or another.

This story is about a stewardess that worked for a small regional airline that we will just call ABC to protect the families of the pilots that flew for them in the early sixties. The stewardess probably doesn't care whether or not I use her real name but I will just call her Jane Doe to be safe.

Jane lived with four other ABC stewardae in a stew zoo about two miles from the airport where they were based. The five of them shared the rent on the rather spacious apartment and they were well known to all airport employees for the many rowdy parties they hosted. Jane was strikingly beautiful and had coal black hair, cobalt eyes and a figure that made the average Hollywood sex kitten look like a tomboy. She bragged that she had never had to get her own room on layovers.

ABC flew the DC-3 and the normal crew was a pilot, a copilot and the stewardess. The airline had arrangements with hotels located at or near the airports they served. They would pay the hotel for one single and one double room. The idea was that the single room was for the stewardess and the male crew members would use the  double. The actual arrangement was usually the stewardess and one male crew member in the double and the other male crew member (that lost the coin toss) in the single. Often they would switch in the middle of the night to be fair. The more adventurous crews only used the double room and arranged a kickback with the hotel for the other room. The hotel could bill the airline and also rent the room to someone else and get paid twice. They would split this money with the airline crew. The real adventurous crews only used the single room and got a bigger kick back for freeing up the double room to rent to someone else. There were also some stewardesses that would not stay in the same room with the male crew members. They used the single room to make some non-taxable income in addition to their paltry airline salary.

Jane was a specialist. She would only stay in a room with a captain. Copilots could only dream about her. This didn't make her very popular with copilots but it did motivate them to do everything they needed to do to work up to that fourth stripe. There was a rumor that her four roommates did a lot to keep the copilots from feeling left out. Most stewardesses would soon find one crew that they liked best and try to fly with them as often as they could. Many of these preferences resulted in marriages which ended the stewardesses flying career. Jane bid different routes every month and seemed to try to avoid flying with the same captain very often. Several captains tried to swap flights just to be with her again but she would usually find out and swap flights herself to avoid them.

Needless to say she was quite the talk about the airport for several months. One night I went into the employee cafeteria about 3 am for a cup of coffee. There was a crowd of people around the employee bulletin board. I pushed in to see what the interest was. It was neatly typed on ABC official letterhead paper.

I Jane Doe attest that as of 2 am tonight I have slept with every Captain on the ABC line. Look out American, here I come!

And that's the truth

Bowinkle T Propwash