Interiors: First-class lounge of a Convair 880 aircraft, 1958.

This is a passenger lounge aboard a little-known airliner from the 1950s called a Convair 880, manufactured by General Dynamics. This particular plane was owned and operated by TWA, and this photo, taken in January 1958, was most likely a publicity shot taken for the airline. There are a lot of startling things about this picture that say a lot about the time it was taken. The roominess of the lounge is considerable; airlines wouldn’t be caught dead doing something like this today, and in fact have a monetary incentive to make on-board spaces as cramped and miserable as possible so as to be able to “upsell” basic comfort as a perk. The chairs are molded plastic with upholstered backs and seats—again, something an airline wouldn’t do today, because cheap rearrangement of seats for maximum monetization is believed (by the airlines, at least) to be a desirable quality.