It’s time for another edition of Vintage Airline Seat Maps and I’ve selected the American Airlines Boeing 747-100 appearing below. This map was published in 1977 and shows the reconfigured layout after American took out the piano bar and lounge in coach. Seating a total of 396 passengers with 66 seats in first class and 330 in coach, American flew this exclusively on long haul domestic flights.
In first class you’d definitely find me in the nose and while row one looks unique, I’d definitely choose a seat mid-cabin. Check out how huge the center table looks and of course notice the unique “dining in the sky†section and upper deck lounge. In economy I’d prefer the first zone of seating with particular focus on the two-seaters in rows 18, 19 and 20. How nice that American offered a total of 20 of these pairs of doubles. Of course this was pre-deregulation before airlines started stuffing as many seats in as possible. I’d love to know the seat pitch figures. Seven rows in the nose plus those tables behind the first row leads me to believe it couldn’t be more than 38″ in first class.
Where would you sit?
Image courtesy American Airlines
Thanks for posting! Always cool to see what flying was like in the early days, when we had little to worry about.
Indeed… I’d like a time machine just to experience it.
Wow, that’s fascinating.
I think I’d enjoy sitting in one of the row 1 seats so that I’d have a semi-forward view from the window. I’m curious, what is that separating seats D and G on rows 11, 12, 14 and 15? A table or a pillar?
In coach, I’d opt for the one of the window (J) seats located on rows 30 and 40 so that I’d have a view of the wing. I’ve always enjoy watching the flaps on the 747 do their thing.
I would love to have been able to experience riding on that plane during that era. It’s not often that I say this, but maybe I was born 20 years to late;-)
That’s actually a table surrounding those D&G seats… check out the little diagram immediately to the left of the cabin where it shows those seats swiveling in. Yeah, I know… I would have loved to have flown on this bird, too.
66 in first class! Makes you wonder who got first dibs on those dining seats in the center. Not to mention who got in the lounge on a 4 hour flight. Upstairs could fit maybe 15 people at once?