--- title: Downton Abbey Season 6 Ep. 8: Air Travel in the 1920s description: Bertie Pelham's decision in Sunday's episode was a brave one canonical: https://time.com/4226056/air-travel-downton-abbey/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-22T12:00:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:24.202Z article:section: History og:title: The Scary Truth About Air Travel in the 'Downton Abbey' Era og:description: Bertie Pelham's decision in Sunday's episode was a brave one og:url: https://time.com/4226056/air-travel-downton-abbey/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d06432e9463ac45/69887dd5cd1bba303f6ff72c/da6_ep8_1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Downton Abbey og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Scary Truth About Air Travel in the 'Downton Abbey' Era twitter:description: Bertie Pelham's decision in Sunday's episode was a brave one twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d06432e9463ac45/69887dd5cd1bba303f6ff72c/da6_ep8_1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Scary Truth About Air Travel in the _Downton Abbey_ Era > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 22, 2016 12:00 PM UTC  Laura Carmichael as Lady Edith and Harry Hadden-Paton as Bertie Pelham on 'Downton Abbey' Laura Carmichael as Lady Edith and Harry Hadden-Paton as Bertie Pelham on 'Downton Abbey' Nick Briggs—Carnival Films/PBS  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 22, 2016 12:00 PM UTC The news on this Sunday’s episode of _Downton Abbey_ that Bertie Pelham planned to travel to Tangier by air rather than ship was met with shock by the Crawley family—and with good reason. Though the number of airplane passengers in Europe had nearly [doubled](http://time.com/vault/issue/1925-10-05/page/9/) between 1923 and 1924, flying at all in the mid-1920s was a bold move. Stunt and military pilots had been taking to the skies for years, but commercial air travel was still relatively untested. It was unsafe, even though fatalities were [rare](http://time.com/vault/issue/1923-05-28/page/25/); it was also often inconvenient and far more uncomfortable than what modern fliers might think of when they hear the words _vintage aviation_. The situation was so bad that in 1925—the year the U.S. awarded a company the first contract to[ deliver mail by air](http://time.com/vault/issue/1934-02-19/page/34/)—Henry Ford [said](http://time.com/vault/issue/1925-07-27/page/7/) that “the commercial airplane is as yet a considerable distance of being a success,” perhaps because the motor’s “vibration is so intense that there is little guaranty \[_sic_\] under such strain that it will remain intact over considerable distances.” Yes, you read that right: the concern was whether the engines would just completely fall apart. Whether the passengers made it to their destination safely, Ford guessed, was 90% a matter of the pilot being exceptionally skilled (not that he didn’t have a vested interest in promoting travel by auto). ### See Incredible Photos of Vintage Airplanes  A Boeing Model C awaits flight in Boeing's Lake Union boathouse in Seattle. 1917. © 2015 The Boeing Company, from Higher: 100 Years of Boeing published by Chronicle Books LLC  Boeing Factory Workers Sewing a MB-3A Wing. 1922. © 2015 The Boeing Company, from Higher: 100 Years of Boeing published by Chronicle Books LLC  Passengers pose in front of the Model 80, built by Boeing Air Transport. 1930. © 2015 The Boeing Company, from Higher: 100 Years of Boeing published by Chronicle Books LLC  Boeing Model 247D in flight over New York City. The Model 247 ushered in the age of speed, reliability, safety and comfort in air travel. 1935. © 2015 The Boeing Company, from Higher: 100 Years of Boeing published by Chronicle Books LLC  Overview of B-17 Flying Fortress Manufacturing. 1944. © 2015 The Boeing Company, from Higher: 100 Years of Boeing published by Chronicle Books LLC  The P-51D Mustang was arguably the best fighter plane of the Second World War. 1945. © 2015 The Boeing Company, from Higher: 100 Years of Boeing published by Chronicle Books LLC  On May 14, 1954, Boeing workers in Renton, Washington, celebrate the rollout of the Dash 80, prototype for the 707. © 2015 The Boeing Company, from Higher: 100 Years of Boeing published by Chronicle Books LLC  The first Boeing 737\. 1967. © 2015 The Boeing Company, from Higher: 100 Years of Boeing published by Chronicle Books LLC Britain’s Imperial Airways did not conduct [flights at night](http://time.com/vault/issue/1926-08-30/page/19/) until 1926, and planes generally took longer (especially considering frequent stops to refuel) and were more uncomfortable than trains. Planes flew low, which meant more turbulence, and into the 1920s passengers had to wear helmets and goggles. [One early route](https://books.google.com/books?id=WiKzlpOyHtkC&pg=PA117&dq=first+commercial+flight+to+tangier&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjqn5G6lf3KAhWGOT4KHWTED7UQ6AEIQzAE#v=onepage&q=first%20commercial%20flight%20to%20tangier&f=false) from Toulouse, France, to Casablanca, via Tangier and several other cities, took 12 hours. But, as Ford had predicted back in 1925, the business potential was great enough that in a couple of years things could change. Sure enough, they did. It wouldn’t be long before TIME [commented that](http://time.com/vault/issue/1937-11-15/page/43/) “\[men\] of affairs whose time literally is money and the semisocial people who consider air travel modern and fashionable \[became\] airline customers.” Today, a nonstop flight from Toulouse to Casablanca takes about two and a half hours. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4226056/air-travel-downton-abbey/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4226056/air-travel-downton-abbey/"},"headline":"The Scary Truth About Air Travel in the Downton Abbey Era","datePublished":"2016-02-22T12:00:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:24.202Z","description":"Bertie Pelham's decision was brave","url":"https://time.com/4226056/air-travel-downton-abbey/","keywords":["Transportation","Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d06432e9463ac45/69887dd5cd1bba303f6ff72c/da6_ep8_1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d06432e9463ac45/69887dd5cd1bba303f6ff72c/da6_ep8_1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Downton Abbey","caption":"Downton AbbeyPart Eight - Sunday, February 21, 2016 at 9pm ET on MASTERPIECE on PBS Two romances get complicated. 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