Remember these?

I wish I did! Mine were all UAL.

Then there were the little vinyl "flight bags".

yours are really nice!

Wow! Cool little wings from the past! I never flew as a kid and not hi-jacking, but along those lines, I did earn my wings as a civilian in the U.S Air Force Ground Observer Corps in the late '50s while still in high school. I even still have the original manual. Anyone else a USAF Ground Observer of the time? It was Cold war stuff and we ran shifts from a local tall building in our town before complete radar coverage in Kansas. Sightings were reported via long distance complete with telephone operators to Wichita Kansas. It was for only for a short period of time until radars covered the state. I still wear my wings occasionally on a hat or shirt just for fun. I think it was the only USAF award to a civilian.

Max

Thanks GM.

Cool story Max. I was unaware of that program. Your wings look very cool too.

Hodakamax

Wow! Cool little wings from the past! I never flew as a kid and not hi-jacking, but along those lines, I did earn my wings as a civilian in the U.S Air Force Ground Observer Corps in the late '50s while still in high school. I even still have the original manual. Anyone else a USAF Ground Observer of the time? It was Cold war stuff and we ran shifts from a local tall building in our town before complete radar coverage in Kansas. Sightings were reported via long distance complete with telephone operators to Wichita Kansas. It was for only for a short period of time until radars covered the state. I still wear my wings occasionally on a hat or shirt just for fun. I think it was the only USAF award to a civilian.

Max

Hey, I have a copy of that book!! 

Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas

Hey PJ!  Wish I could find mine from National Airlines (the older, no longer around airline).  Remember them?  The orange and yellow sun?  What memories!  :)

Hodakamax

Wow! Cool little wings from the past! I never flew as a kid and not hi-jacking, but along those lines, I did earn my wings as a civilian in the U.S Air Force Ground Observer Corps in the late '50s while still in high school. I even still have the original manual. Anyone else a USAF Ground Observer of the time? It was Cold war stuff and we ran shifts from a local tall building in our town before complete radar coverage in Kansas. Sightings were reported via long distance complete with telephone operators to Wichita Kansas. It was for only for a short period of time until radars covered the state. I still wear my wings occasionally on a hat or shirt just for fun. I think it was the only USAF award to a civilian.

Max

 

Hey Max, I have that book too.  It was my dads and it was handed down to me.  Studied that thing like nobodies business when I was a kid.  Still look at it when I see it in the book case. 

Hey Bobby, yes I remember that one . I think they had the names of some of the pretty stews on the nose like " Fly Wanda". That would cause a roar nowadays. 

plasticjunkie

Hey Bobby, yes I remember that one . I think they had the names of some of the pretty stews on the nose like " Fly Wanda". That would cause a roar nowadays. 

 

That it would!  LOL!

Pretty neat wing collection.  I need to look through my Dad's pin collection becasue I know he kept all mine. He flew alot and would take us kids with him.  I ended up with wings from Northwest, PanAm, and Western.  I think there are also some of the little miniture travel bags I got that had a few pieces of candy that he kept.  

I had so much stuff like this when I was a kid. My dad worked for TWA and brought me all kinds of stuff. But I did not keep any of it.

Remember, oh yeah.

It is very cool you have these, Ernie. They look so good and things have gotten so cheap now, I wonder if they might look better than the actual crew wings now???

Like Stik, all of mine are gone, and like some of you, I flew a lot with my folks as a kid. Back in the day when you would get invited into the cockpit if the crew felt like it.

Neat post.

Greg

Remember, oh yeah.

Back in the day when you would get invited into the cockpit if the crew felt like it.

Neat post.

 

Thanks guys.

And they served real food on real glass plates with silverware and glassware. Now days it's paper, plastic and junk food.

Yeah!

 Dem were da days .I got my wings frum da Pilots in da cockpit ob a Vickers Viscount operated by Capitol Airlines . Whatta flyte . An those engines shure could wissel !

   I couldn' resist printing like I used to speak when I was a child .Sure was fun .I wish I still had those wings .  T.B.

So I went through my stuff and found one set.

It makes me sad that I've lost what was a pretty big collection, but it is something.

Cool looking wings GM. hopefully more will show up.

Hey anybody here ever got to fly in a Super Connie? I did a couple of times. To me the Super Connie is the sleekest and most graceful airplane of all time.

Nope, but they were cool.

UAL kid so ours were DC-6s and DC-7s.

Those are all distant memories, mostly gone as dad died last year following five years of dementia.

He got hired at UAL in 1953 and retired there in 2005.

We flew a lot on employee passes, the usefulness of which increased as the years went by.

From getting bumped by soldiers at Monterey CA to getting 1C upgrades for the two of them on Lufthansa, and everything in between you can imagine.

Caravelle, those Capitol Viscounts with the Dehavilland Darts that TB mentioned.

Bought those to stop gap the cancelation of the Electra program.

DC-3,4,6,7,8,10.

Boeing 720, 727, 737 of course, 747, 757, 767 and 777.

Dad made the ADA happen on US commercial airlines.

Even flew on Lockheed Tristars after UAL was forced to gag them down in the PAA merger.

A lot of fun in Europe in the 60s.

Dad was on the evaluation team from UAL for Concorde.

That was a bit of a stretch as UAL was a national airline.

But I spent several pleasant summers in England in and around Bristol, and down in France at Toulouse.

BA 111 got looked at, Hawker Siddeley Trident (bet that's a rare one for you guys), but never got to go in Concorde.

There'll be a quiz at the end abt the HS Trident.

I got so much swag that it had to be thrown away.

UAL did a interior redesign when they first branched away from the original look (see pin) I got a number of yards of high quality browm wool seat fabric that I re upholstered a car with.

Kirke W. Comstock

1930-2016.

GMorrison, Thats some nice memories!

I'm sure I would have loved taliking with your dad.

I don't have any wings from my youth. My 1st airliner flight was when I

Joined the AirForce.

My airline still gives out nice metal wings to kids.