A flight attendant lights a passenger's cigar on a plane.
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Smoking on planes wasn't fully banned in the US until 2000.
Passengers used to be able to use sharp knives during meals.
Cockpit tours have become less common after 9/11.
Things like smoking, touring the cockpit, and using a steak knife used to be commonplace on planes in the 1950s. Today, rules for passengers and cabin crews are more strict.
These vintage photos show passengers in the midst of activities that would definitely get them banned from flights today.
Today's pilots must follow rules about alcohol consumption, but that wasn't the case in the early days of flying.
Lady Mary Heath holding a flask of whisky before flying in Croydon, UK.
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Irish aviator Lady Mary Heath took a swig of whisky before flying at an altitude of 20,000 feet in 1928. The first female commercial pilot in the UK, Heath became the first person to fly the 10,000-mile-trip from South Africa to London in 1928, according to the Irish Emigration Museum.
The rules about pilots consuming alcohol were less strict then. Today, on-duty pilots cannot have a blood alcohol level of 0.04 or higher or consume alcohol within eight hours of a flight, according to Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute.
Before laptops were invented, some workers brought their typewriters along on flights.
A secretary on a KLM flight in 1955.
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In 1955, a KLM secretary was photographed hard at work dictating notes on her typewriter from her airplane seat.
Smoking used to be commonplace on flights.
Passengers smoke on a plane in the 1950s.
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When booking a ticket, passengers could choose between smoking and non-smoking sections.
Flight attendants would even help passengers light their cigars.
A flight attendant lights a passenger's cigar on a plane.
Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images
Smoking on planes wasn't fully banned by the federal government until 2000, Insider's Thomas Pallini reported.
Back in the day, people ate airplane meals with metal cutlery.
Passengers dine on a plane in the 1950s.
Touring Club Italiano/Marka/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
While real silverware is still available in some business and first-class sections, most airlines serve meals with plasticware.
Some passengers even brought large carving knives onto flights, which wouldn't be permitted today.
A man holds a Thanksgiving turkey on his lap on a flight in 1949.
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Metal knives were banned on planes after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, The Chicago Tribune reported. Now, only plastic or round-bladed butter knives are allowed in carry-on luggage.
The cockpit was once a place where pilots and flight attendants offered tours and photo-ops.
A United Airlines flight attendant shows a passenger the interior of the cockpit circa 1950.
Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images
Cockpit doors did have locks prior to 9/11, but after the attacks, the doors were required to be grenade-proof and only unlockable from the inside, according to the FAA.
Now, posing for photos with members of the flight crew in the cockpit is a rare occurrence.
Passengers on a trip on Concorde. 2nd April 1986.
H Walker/Mirrorpix/Getty Images
Pilots do occasionally allow young children and aviation enthusiasts into the cockpit during boarding or after landing, but not mid-flight, One Mile At A Time reported in 2022.
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