In post-World War Two America, there was a strong belief that private aviation was going to sweep the country, and that small airplanes would soon become as common as cars. Partly this arose from the fact that thousands of men who were trained to fly during the war were returning home to start new lives and bang out the babies and that they would miss the fun and freedom they found in flying during the war. I can attest to the fact that this was not the case because my father was a pilot in the war and swore he’d never fly again once he got home and attempted to shake off the traumatic memories of his time in the air. The above film, made by Cessna in the late 1950s, advertises their single-engine planes as easy to learn to operate and affordable to boot. Oddly, the sales pitch has little to do with the pleasures of flying and mostly focuses on the time you’ll save darting to and from business meetings in the air (not taking into account long pre-checks and towers holding you for other plane’s takeoffs). The ‘plane in every garage’ bit never got off the ground (apologies).. General Aviation never ‘took flight’ (apologies again) and remains a niche pursuit to this day.

The film is a perfect portrait of middle-class post-war life and the set-up–a friend who has discovered flying and become obsessed with it gives a skeptical friend a hard sell on taking it up–is rather too close to my current state of mind for comfort. Over the past year I’ve become something of a propeller-head, reading histories of aviation, teaching myself basic piloting skills via YouTube videos, and in general making myself obnoxious to anyone near me by recounting aviation information that I find fascinating and most others don’t. I haven’t gotten as far as actual lessons yet, but my GF and I did take an awesome flight in a 1930 bi-plane last month. I can’t recommend the experience highly enough. One last thing: the Cessna used in this movie is still in existence and still flying. I looked up its tail-number–November 7919 Alpha–and discovered that it’s owned by a man in Newark, Ohio. This gentleman also owns a 1967 Mooney, which is one sweet ride. I left a message on his Facebook page to see if he knows that his plane starred in a movie and haven’t heard back yet. I’ll keep you posted…