Who knows if a golden age of air travel ever really existed, but it sure isn’t now.  Let’s take a look back at the romantic early days of air travel to Hawaii and the Boeing “Flying Hotel”.

In 1939, a Boeing 314 Clipper took to the skies. It was the largest airliner at the time — with wings so big they could be serviced by crew members on interior walkways — yet still only carried around 25 passengers. Known as “flying hotels,” these new Clippers offered an upper flight deck, lower passenger cabin, lounge that converted into a dining room, separate men’s and women’s restrooms and even a swanky De Luxe bridal suite in the back.

Yet with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, all tourism to Hawaii was stopped by the U.S. military, and so was Pan Am’s six year reign of the skies.