The Future of Air Travel in 1939

This article reports a speech by the manager of Union Airways, a New Zealand firm, in April 1939. He discusses his ten-day trip from Australia to England — part of which was on air-conditioned “flying boat” that carried 22 passengers and flew at 150 mph. The original article from the Wellington Evening Post of 27 April 1939 is available on the PapersPast site.

A current Airbus 380, by the way, can have a takeoff weight of as much as 575 tons.