Our host Rudy Maxa speaks with Keith Lovegrove, author of Airline: Identity, Design and Culture, which includes 300 photographs and illustrations and gives a history of fashion and design in commercial air travel over the past 75 years. We asked him to explain when and why commercial airlines started spiffing up the their image.

Airline Identity
An Interview with Keith Lovegrove

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"We like to fly and it shows." "Something Special in the Air." "Come fly the friendly skies."

You hear these slogans so often you could repeat them in your sleep. It's the airlines' attempt to create an identity, develop a style. But where did this need for style begin? In order to understand this birth of fashion you have go back to when airline travel became, well, fashionable.

I recently spoke with Keith Lovegrove, author of Airline: Identity, Design and Culture, which includes 300 photographs and illustrations and gives a history of fashion and design in commercial air travel over the past 75 years. I asked him to explain when and why commercial airlines started spiffing up the interior of their planes.