It’s been 70 years since our first flight attendant, Birdie Perkins, flew from Atlanta to Fort Worth, Texas, on the inaugural flight of our 14-passenger Douglas DC-2 on March 16, 1940. The trip took five hours in those days, and the stewardesses worked in unpressurized, unair-conditioned cabins, but the job had glamour! “You felt like a little celeb,” remembered Sybil Harmon, another of our early flight attendants.
Check out all the colorful uniforms and insignia worn by Delta flight attendants from 1940-today at the new Delta Museum’s Uniform Timeline.
Learn more about 1940s Delta In-Flight Service.
See an earlier post for a video tribute to Delta flight attendants through the years.
Thank you, flight attendants, for all you do!
Marie Force
Archives Manager
March 15th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Is Ms. Perkins alive? Did Delta ever do an oral history recorded interview with her? If so, having a summarized .mp3 of the interview available online, here on this blog would be great. No one could ever tell her story like she could. (with apologizes to Ms. Force)
March 19th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Hi Daryl-ATL: Birdie Perkins Bomar passed away on January 22, 2004 at the age of 90. We miss her at the Delta Museum! She was a special guest on the first flight of our DC-3 Ship 41 after its restoration was completed in 1999. We also have tapes of several interviews of her in the 1970s and 1980s, but they are not digitized yet.
March 20th, 2010 at 8:21 am
Just reminds me of an episode I watched on CNN Business Traveller on Flight Attendants(Up in the Sky).I have also seen some cool photos on Delta Museum of Delta FAs!!!The job used to be glamorous in the olden days;the golden age of aviation!Am sure many girls dreamed of being FAs in the 40s and 50s!
March 23rd, 2010 at 7:45 am
I have always enjoyed how airlines hire “top notch” designers to design new uniforms. I think in a way it is subliminal advertising!
October 23rd, 2011 at 4:27 pm
@Darlyn-ATL Hearing Aunt Birdie story from her was great growing up she told us about it all the time sadly we never recorded it but she had a very exciting life her and my uncle both.