Some 112 otherwise mature journalists from 10 European nations kept dashing from side to side of the aircraft to get a better view of the Greenland glaciers. Eventually the chief purser, Danny O'Keeffe, had to plead with them to keep their seats less they should upset the flight trim balance.
The activity was hard to resist for it was the first time that passengers had seen those vast, snowy, sparkling glaciers, divided by the narrow fjords, from a height of over seven miles. With the full sun and the moon challenging each other throughout the flight, the views were among the wonders of the Northern Hemisphere. The Danes on board were the most excited of all, for the great frozen island of Greenland is a part of their nation which so few of them had ever seen.
It was in 1958 that of the jet age of transatlantic travel began. That was also the first year that airliners carried more passengers (1,292,000) across the Atlantic than did the great liners on the shipping routes. As a long-time observer of aircraft movements and passengers at Shannon, I was invited by Pan American Airways to be the lone Irish guest on the inaugural passenger flight from Paris and London to New York - exactly 40 years ago tomorrow. As a result, I became the first Irish person to cross the Atlantic by jet.
The Boeing 707, with its swept-back wings and tail and its turbo-jets suspended in pods below the wings, set the pattern for modern-day air transport.
Hissing along
After the cabin vibration and the bouncing up and down through the clouds experienced on piston-engined aircraft during the previous 13 years of transatlantic flying , that inaugural jet flight was as uneventful as sitting in your fireside armchair. There was no sensation of flying because of the absence of vibration as you hissed along at 600 mph - twice the speed of conventional aircraft, such as the DC7 on which I flew to London to join the jet.
To demonstrate this new-found comfort the pioneering passengers balanced coins on their edges or built houses of cards like children on the seat tables before them. In their anxiety to be first on the Atlantic route, PanAm used the short-range, domestic 707-20 version of the Boeing jet. As a result, we had to make refuelling stops at Keflavik in Iceland and then at Gander, Newfoundland.
American prestige
The pilot, Captain Dick Vinal, had flown President Roosevelt to Casablanca for the famous wartime Big Four meeting, so American prestige was also at stake. The international model of this Boeing, the 707320 version, went on the Atlantic route nine months later.
The flying time from London to New York was 8 1/2 hours and the return journey, assisted by a tail-wind, took only 6 1/2 hours. This total was equivalent to the time propeller-driver aircraft took for a single crossing.
The speed of the early jets created problems for the cabin staff, who had to work at twice the normal pace. All passengers savoured the culinary masterpieces prepared by Maxim's of Paris which were served from four up-to-the-minute galleys, each equipped with the latest infra-red heating units.
The menu for dinner, served between Iceland and Newfoundland, was set out on a parchment backed with red velvet; I still have it. It included a choice of grilled filet mignon with buttered broccoli and risolu potatoes or Rock Cornish Game hen and lobster thermidor prepared to your taste and served with the flair of a fine Continental restaurant. To wash it all down there were Martini Manhattan cocktails, sherry followed by Charles Heidsieck champagne, with a choice of Bordeaux Grand Cru Classe or Pouilly Fuisse. There was no racing around the aircraft after that dinner. Nor at this stage were the passengers or 13 crew members concerned that 17 days earlier, on October 4th, a British Overseas Airways Comet IV had slipped quietly out of London airport with a small group of British journalists and officials to get ahead of the Americans.
Record time
On the way home we were off the Irish coast when it was learned that there was stacking of aircraft at London. I watched at the cockpit door as the pilot, Captain Clarence Warren, conducted a high-level conference as to whether the plane should land at Shannon (where the new jet runway was not yet completed); but eventually it was decided to go on to London.
One month later Aerliante, the new Irish airline, shattered the record from New York to Shannon, taking 4 hours 57 minutes with a Boeing 720 jet on a delivery flight. That time has scarcely been beaten since. In September this year, for example, with favourable winds the flight time from New York to Shannon was from 5 hours 13 minutes to 5 hours 23 minutes with the Aer Lingus Airbus 330, which has replaced all the various Boeings.