(CNN) — The airplane speeds through the sky on its way to London as you dine on tender beef and caviar.
This sounds more like a dream than reality for most people who have flown.
Pan Am used the Stratocruiser for over a decade to transport passengers to international destinations.
Courtesy Pan Am Museum Foundation
But for others, it is a distant memory. Former Pan Am flight attendant Bronwen Roberts used to fly on the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser in the late 1950s.
The aircraft was the epitome of luxury, seating up to 100 passengers for a vacation in the skies. With a cruising speed of just over 300 miles per hour, it was a great plane for transatlantic flights in the 1950s.
“I was so spoiled by flying these early years where the service was just so incredible,” Roberts said.
This is a sample menu of what passengers were served aboard the 377 Stratocruiser.
Courtesy Pan Am Museum Foundation
The extravagance began with the food that was served on board. French restaurant Maxim’s de Paris catered in-flight dining and offered a variety of upscale items including their famous beef entrée.
“The planes had their own ovens, and there was usually a beef tenderloin cooked on board and sliced in front of you,” Pan Am Museum Foundation historian John Luetich said.
A young John Luetich visits the Pan Am Frankfurt ticket office in 1959.
Courtesy Pan Am Museum Foundation
Flight attendants could also indulge in the European fare, which Roberts admitted she did quite often. While she sampled everything from succulent lamb chops to pungent cheeses, one of her favorites was the caviar.
When passengers weren’t dining on French delicacies, they could head down a spiral staircase to the lower deck lounge. Flight attendants served cocktails, Luetich said, as people mingled with other flyers.
This style of flying is very unlike the flying of today, where passengers typically stay quiet and keep to themselves. In the lounge, however, flyers would chat and socialize, Roberts said.
Guests chatted during their flight in the lower lounge, which seated 14 people.
Courtesy Pan Am Museum Foundation
Roberts never had the opportunity to sleep in one herself, but she was able to try it out in between flights.
“I tested them when we’re on the ground, and it was so spacious,” Roberts said. “Even a tall man could stretch out, and it was very comfortable.”
When the Stratocruiser was first launched in 1947, economy class had not yet been invented. As the idea of the economy class grew in popularity, comfort and luxury were pushed aside in favor of more seats and luggage storage.
Pan Am decommissioned the Stratocruiser in 1961 to make way for new planes such as the Boeing 707 and 737. Roberts transitioned to work on those planes, where she was a flight attendant for famous people such as Audrey Hepburn and Winston Churchill.
The 377 Stratocruiser had spacious accomodations for every passenger.
Courtesy Pan Am Museum Foundation
Much has changed about flying today, Roberts said, which she describes as a night and day experience. Caviar has been traded out for stale pretzel packets and beef tenderloin has been switched to lukewarm microwave meals.
While she misses flying on planes such as the 377 Stratocruiser during the 1950s, Roberts is grateful to have experienced what she did.
“That was a wonderful time to fly,” Roberts said. “It’s like a wonderful memory.”
