Thanks to ThisDayin History.com for the reminder that on this day, February 7, back in 1964, Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from London Heathrow landed at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport with its special cargo of Beatles.

According to History.com:

It was the first visit to the United States by the Beatles, a British rock-and-roll quartet that had just scored its first No. 1 U.S. hit six days before with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” At Kennedy, the “Fab Four”–dressed in mod suits and sporting their trademark pudding bowl haircuts–were greeted by 3,000 screaming fans who caused a near riot when the boys stepped off their plane and onto American soil.

Here’s a great video using clips from that day:

Two days after their arrival at JFK, the Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

The Heli-home

Last June the RV industry celebrated its 100 anniversary and, for a story about the history of the RV industry that appeared on msnbc.com Travel, I visited the Recreational Vehicle/Manufactured Home Hall of Fame and Museum in Elkhart, Indiana.

The museum displays the ‘house car’ Paramount Studios provided for movie star Mae West, a homemade motor home based on a 1976 Cadillac Eldorado, a variety of first production units and pristine versions of popular models such as the 1954 15-foot Shasta travel trailer described as a being typical of the “canned-ham” style trailers of the 1950s.

Mae West's 1931 'house car'

Not on display at the museum, but shown in a photograph there, was a flying camper called a ‘heli-home,’ which I described in a post here on StuckatTheAirport.com.

James R. Chiles contacted me to let me know he was working on a story about that Flying Winnebago for Air&Space/Smithsonian and, now that the story is published, he’s sent a link.

More a novelty than a mass-produced vehicle, Chiles reports that the Winnebago company built perhaps seven Heli-Homes or Heli-Campers. They “… could sleep six passengers, and had an electric range, sink, fridge, couches, eight-track tape deck, television, generator, twin water heaters, parquet-topped dinette tables, mini-bar, air conditioner, furnace, shower, and bathroom with holding tanks.”

And, of course, they could fly.

Don’t you want one? I do!

Here’s a link to the Flying Winnebago story by James R. Chiles.

I saw this and a few dozen other aviation treasures during a recent tour of the museum and spent some time in the gift shop in search of items to share with you for souvenir Sunday.

I liked this 38-piece 3-D Space Shuttle puzzle -

And this cute plate -

But my favorite items in the gift shop were these glasses celebrating the fact that Chicks Fly.

Msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin wondered, too. So I asked two former Pan Am flight attendants to watch the show and tell me if their experiences were anything like those portrayed on-screen.

Bronwen Roberts in a 1958 Pan Am graduation photo.

Bronwen Roberts was hired at Pan Am in 1958 shortly after graduating England’s University of Leeds with a degree in French. She flew until 1989 and kept in a scrapbook the advertisement listing the 15 qualifications required of flight attendant applicants. “You had to have a pleasant personality and speaking voice, excellent health and you had to be single,” said Roberts. “Really single. Not widowed, divorced or separated.”

A weight between 110 and 135 pounds was another qualification. Roberts said the pre-flight weigh-ins and grooming inspections depicted on the show were true-to-life.

“When you checked in for a flight you’d go into the office and there’d be a grooming supervisor on duty all the time,” said Roberts. “She could say, ‘Your hair is too long’ or ‘You are overweight’ and send you home until you fixed it. Just like the TV show, you could get grounded for uniform violations.”

Helen Davey also found the on-screen grooming checks familiar. Now a psychotherapist in Los Angeles, she was hired as a Pan Am flight attendant in 1965 at age 21 and flew until 1986.

Helen Davey in an undated photo from her days as a Pan Am flight attendant.

“Yes, we had to wear girdles,” said Davey. “And if you were one minute late for a trip, they’d send you home.”

In the first episode, a child is escorted into the cockpit mid-flight to visit the pilots. Passengers are also offered ashtrays so they can smoke. Roberts and Davey both said that those in-flight activities were once very common.

“We definitely took children into the cockpit so they could sit in the pilot’s seat,” said Roberts. “And in terms of smoking, we’d have little packets of cigarettes and matches that we’d go around with.”

“Even flight attendants could smoke,” added Davey. “But when they did, they had to be sitting down.”

In the episode (spoiler alert), two of the flight attendants are shown doing work for the CIA. If this seems like the least plausible story line, Roberts and Davey both said it was realistic.

“That is definitely a true story,” said Roberts, who during her tenure heard rumors that at least one flight attendant was involved with the CIA. “At one point she just disappeared. No one knew what happened to her.”

In fact, Nancy Hult Ganis, an executive producer for the show and a former Pan Am flight attendant, told wired.com that her research turned up stories about the airline’s involvement with State Department operations on behind-the-scene missions in dangerous locations.

The TV program also shows flight attendants with plenty of time to chit-chat, and at least one crew member involved in an off-duty affair with a passenger.

“Some of those flights were quite long – 15 or 20 hours – and there were fewer people, so you could get to know them,” said Roberts. “People weren’t glued to their laptops like they are now. And some people did end up marrying passengers they met on flights.”

Roberts and Davey had only a few quibbles with the first episode. Both said their uniforms were a warmer, more subdued shade of blue than those worn by the TV actresses and that flight attendants in their day would never be allowed to have hair touching their shoulders.

But there’s one moment that Davey said was spot on. “I liked the scene when they were ready for take-off and one flight attendant says to the new hire, ‘Buckle up. Adventure calls.’ That’s how it was. We all thought we had lucked into the best job into the world.”

The museum is jam-packed with restored vintage aircraft, flight simulators, two theaters featuring Alaska aviation films and three hangers filled with bush pilot, military aviation and commercial aviation memorabilia, including items related to Alaska Airlines and other airlines integral to a state with limited ground transportation options.

The museum also has an active restoration hanger and a well-stocked aviation-themed gift shop where I found a few Souvenir Sunday treasures, including these stickers -

And this great 3-D float plane puzzle:

The address for his website — uniformfreak.com — says it all.

Cliff Muskiet, an aviation-crazed kid who grew up to be a flight attendant for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, has amassed a collection of more than 1,000 flight attendant uniforms.

“Only stewardess uniforms,” said Muskiet. “The female uniforms come in various colors, materials and with different accessories like hats, scarves and gloves. Male uniforms all look the same: jacket, pants, plain shirt and a tie, most men’s uniforms are dark blue and quite boring.”

Muskiet got his first few uniforms in the 1970s and 80s. After a 1993 stop in Ghana, where he picked up some old Ghana Airways uniforms, he began collecting in earnest.

“I love the 1970s psychedelic patterns and color combinations: yellow, red, orange, purple, green, white and blue; every color was used and everything was possible,” Muskiet said. “Also flower prints, dots or checked fabrics were used a lot. I love the big pointy collars from the 70s and synthetic fabrics.”

Muskiet keeps his collection of uniforms and accessories in closets, containers, garment bags and suitcases in two rooms of his home in Amsterdam. For display in his online museum, he photographs each uniform on his one mannequin, which is a size 2.

“I have uniforms in a size 2, but also in a size 10 or 14,” he said. “When she has to wear a size 14, I use pins to make the uniform look nice at the front.”

Among his favorites are two KLM uniforms that have sentimental value: a circa 1971 uniform that was the first one given to him and an example of the KLM uniforms worn from 1975 through 1982. “The uniforms remind me of my childhood and the many trips I made to the USA on KLM with my mother,” said Muskiet. Some of his other favorites are the uniforms worn by female flight attendants on Asiana Airlines in the 1990s, on Kuwait Airways and United Airlines from 1968-1971 and the current outfits worn by TAP Portugal and British Caledonian.

“In the late 1960s and 1970s, a lot of different colors were used and that is something I really miss,” he said. “Especially in the USA, flight attendant uniforms have become a bit boring and look like business outfits.”

A tour through Muskiet’s online museum is anything but boring. “From looking at so many uniforms, you can see trends that correlate with the events of the time and learn about the role of the flight attendant throughout history,” said Kathrine Browne, collections assistant at Seattle’s Museum of Flight. Browne helped put together two popular exhibitions featuring flight attendant uniforms — called “Style in the Aisle” — taken from the museum’s 1,500-piece collection. She is unaware of an online collection that can compare with Muskiet’s. “The collection is exceptional.”

Muskiet is always on the lookout for more uniforms and says he enjoys everything about his job as a purser for KLM. “Except the time differences. One week you are in Hong Kong and the next week you are in New York: time difference 13 hours! The older you get, the more difficult it is to deal with this, but it is all worth it.”

Especially if you’re wearing the right, stylish uniform.

It may be another 40 years before before the FBI solves the D.B. Cooper caper, but federal agents aren’t willing to give up.

Back in 1971, a man who bought a ticket under the name Dan Cooper hijacked a plane flying from Portland to Seattle and demanded a flight to Mexico, four parachutes – and $200,000.

Cooper bailed out somewhere over southwest Washington – and disappeared. Along with most all of that money.

All these years, the FBI has following leads but has been unable to crack the case. Now they’re giving it another try.

According to a story on msnbc.com,

The latest lead in the case originated with a source in law enforcement, who directed agents to a person who was close to the suspect and obtained objects now being analyzed to see if they bear fingerprints matching those left by the hijacker on the plane…

The suspect has been dead quite a while, but it would nice to put this unsolved mystery to rest.

Or would it?

If the case was solved, then the folks who gather every year at a bar in Ariel, Washington for their annual party in honor of Cooper would have to find something else to drink to.

Take a listen to my story about the party, “Whatever happened to DB Cooper” that aired a few years back on National Public Radio. There are some intriguing theories floating around out there….

As in this 1871 photo of a balloon ascending over Ferndale, CA, some of the earliest attempts to conquer space were in free floating hot-air balloons. Next came heavier than air machines and, ultimately, rocket ships that can elude gravity and soar into space. Lucky for us photographers and artists were often on hand to document and imagine these journeys.

In his now classic aviation book, Birdflight as the basis for aviation, published in 1889, Otto Lilienthal outlined his theories on flying based on his study of bird wing structure and the aerodynamics of bird flight. He built and famously experimented with a series of 18 bird-inspired gliders and served as an inspiration for Wright Brothers, who studied his gliding techniques.

Stunt pilot Art Smith became well known for aerobatic flying and for using flares to do skywriting at night, a talent he exhibited on the closing night of San Francisco’s Pan Pacific International Exposition in 1915. Smith later went on to work for the US post office as one the first air mail pilots.

Famed aviator Charles Lindbergh stands in front of his airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, shortly after completing the first solo, non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in May, 1927. The plane is now in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.

In 1934, the Griffith Park Observatory was getting ready to open in Los Angeles. This photograph shows the artist, Roger Haywood, sculpting a section of an exact replica of the moon, reduced to 38 feet.

I’ll post more photos from the Skydreamers exhibition tomorrow, but if you want to start planning a trip to Los Angeles to see the full show, you have until September 4, 2011 to see it at the Autry National Center.

Here’s a story from the local TV news station KMOV:

Airport spokespeople say at least four people were transported to area hospitals with minor injuries and that:

“At this time, it appears that Terminal 1 and Concourse C suffered the most damage from the storm with high winds that blew out up to 50 percent of windows and caused roof damage as well.  There is also considerable storm damage at the entrances of the airport and along roadways.”

KMOV has also posted a gallery of photos showing what the area looked like after the tornado:

See the rest of the KMOV STL airport tornado damage photo gallery.

The damage is heartbreaking. Especially for those who have been looking forward to all the new features and amenities that were being put in place for a major restoration project.

Let’s hope the Lindbergh 1934 Monocoupe D-145 is safe. Charles Lindbergh’s personal plane hovered over the STL Concourse C checkpoint for 30 years and just last month was lowered and moved to the Mt. Vernon Municipal Airport to make way for a concourse relocation project. The plane is owned by the Missouri History Museum and is scheduled to return to STL when renovations there are complete.

Julie McKinney -famiily and friends at Orlando Airport

I had way too much fun gathering stories, drawings and photos for this story about first flights that appeared on msnbc.com today.  I know there are lots more great stories – and first flight souvenirs – out there, so after you read these stories, please send along your own.

Do you remember your first airplane ride?

Julie McKinney does. No doubt other passengers on that flight do too.

It was 1992 and she was “that” kid: the excited 5-year old on her first airplane ride and headed to Disney World. “I was the one singing ‘M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E’ the entire flight from Pittsburgh to Orlando,” said McKinney.

Now 23, McKinney remembers other passengers singing along. “The singing continued until the end of the flight and I don’t remember anyone getting upset. I think of this now every time I fly and can’t imagine how I’d react to a singing child sitting in front of me.”

Roller coasters, dolphins and cotton balls

Whether it was 50 years ago or just last week, your first airplane ride, like your first kiss, can leave a lasting impression and have an impact on what sort of traveler you become.

Jeff Pecor was also Disney World-bound on his first airplane ride, at age 8, in the early 1980s. Now on staff at Yapta, an airfare and hotel price tracking site, Pecor remembers it being “so cool that they served food and they gave you plastic pilot wings. And everyone was so nice.”

Unforgettable as well: “That first roller-coaster feeling that hits your stomach when the plane sometimes drops suddenly during turbulence. That sensation still gets me today, but it’s altogether different when you’re not expecting the plane to do that.”

Raymond Kollau, who today tracks airline news for airlinetrends.com, first boarded a plane when he was 16, in the summer of 1986. “From the air, the waves in the Mediterranean looked like dolphins,” said Kollau, “And I remember telling my sister she couldn’t walk in the aisle because it would make the plane lean forwards or backwards.”

Snow Wonderland

To Boston-based artist Annie Silverman, the world outside the airplane window on her first flight, in 1957, looked like a “snow wonderland.” She even documented the scene in an autobiography she wrote and illustrated in her 4^th grade class that year. “It was Christmas vacation and we were all dressed up,” said Silverman, “I remember that the clouds looked like giant cotton balls, the sky was so blue and there was the constant hum of the motor.”
Gum balls, not cotton balls welcomed Thomas Sawyer on his first flight. Sawyer, the bladder cancer survivor recently in the news for his experience with a botched airport pat-down, took his first flight as a young newlywed with his wife, Sherry. At the end of that flight, he realized he’d been sitting on a wad of gum. “The very good looking stewardess attempted to remove it and my wife finally said to her, ‘I think I will take care of that, thank-you.’ She obviously didn’t want this young lady touching my butt. We have laughed about it for 41 years,” said Sawyer.

There was probably no laughing when Orville and Wilbur Wright made those historic first, heavier-than-air powered flights on December 17, 1903. The weather and the wind were bad that day and, according to Peter Jakab, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs at the National and Space Museum, “Years later Orville said that had they known then what they learned later, they would never have made that test flight under those conditions.”

Still, in preparing for that first flight Orville wrote in his diary, “…Isn’t it astonishing that all these secrets have been preserved for so many years just so we can discover them!!”

Baby’s first flight

Cathy Raines first discovered flying on January 10^th, 1955, when she was just nine weeks old. She’s flown to 45 countries since then. And while she doesn’t remember that first flight, she’s proud to have the Sky Cradle Club certificate issued that day by the American Airlines crew. “There’s a drawing of a baby in a diaper astride a jet plane and it’s signed by two stewardesses, the captain and others,” said Raines.

Although Delta Air Lines recently brought back the tradition of handing out plastic wings to kids and polite adults, most airlines did away with tangible souvenirs such as First Flight certificates and wings as a cost-saving step after 9/11.

Mary Winking at John Wayne Airport - 1985

That disappoints American Airlines flight attendant Mary Winking, who has fond memories of her first flight when she was nine years old. “The flight attendants were very attentive and let me help hand out the honey roasted peanuts. I got my first pair of wings that day and still have them with other keepsakes from that first trip to California.”

“I still wish we had the stick-on wings to give out to children and/or a certificate to present to them like we used to,” says Kelly Vrajitoru, also an American Airlines flight attendant. She remembers that on her first flight, at five years old, she held tight to her mother’s hand “feeling my stomach lift as we took off.”

Today, Vrajitoru tries to pay extra attention to first-time flyers, especially kids. “I always offer to have a parent take a picture of their kid with the Captain before take-off or on landing, or to have them sit in the cockpit to take a closer look at all the gears and instruments. I know it makes a special and lasting impression.”

The passenger of the future

Jacob Whitecotton, now four years old, got some of that special attention when he took his first flight from Oklahoma to Orlando at age three. For the flight, Jake dressed up in a white shirt, a tie and the kid-sized American Airlines pilot cap his mom bought for him at an airport gift shop.  “It was a blast. He was going through the airport pulling a little rolling suitcase and he looked just like a tiny pilot,” said Jake’s mom, Andrea Whitecotton.

Once on the plane, Jacob got the royal treatment. A flight attendant produced a set of wings from a secret stash he’d squirreled away. Flight attendants and other travelers took pictures. One passenger gave Jake a disposable camera so he could document his flight.

What does Jake remember?  “I got to go in the cockpit and they let me drive the plane.”

What do you remember about your first flight? Please share your memories below.

[This story first appeared on msnbc.com]