A newly published history of dining in the sky includes the era of passenger zeppelins.
Food in the Air and Space: The Surprising History of Food and Drink in the Skies discusses dining in the early DELAG airships as well as Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg, and even mentions the military airships of WWI.
I was pleased to help with the book in a small way and the author was kind enough to thank me in the acknowledgments.
I remember when I went on my first airplane flight. I was about four or five and our family was going to Florida on vacation. We were on a Delta flight and this was way back around 1964 or 1965. Not only did we get food, they also passed out cigarettes on board. Even I got a pack of smokes! I recall a family vacation out west back in 1975 where our reservations got all screwed up. Here’s the silver lining in that big mess, we ended up at the same airport as then President Ford, and we got to shake his hand. Then we got routed around different airlines and airports to get us back home and on the homeward leg we ended up having to be placed first class on an American Airlines 707. We got served wine with dinner! They poured it into glasses right from a real wine bottle. Not one of those mini bottle thingies. In those days it was a given, that airlines fed you well. Back when I did more business travel in the 1980’s, those inflight meals were a Godsend! Especially if I arrived late and restaurants were closed. Now when I pick up the novel “Airport” by Arthur Hailey and read the description of air travel and the food served aboard Flight 2 to Rome, I find myself greatly missing a bygone era.
I can remember having a breakfast of scrambled eggs with toast, coffee and juice – in coach class for free on a domestic flight on a major carrier. Now it’s a bag of salted nuts and three fingers of coffee.