A Brief History Of Flight Attendants

The Changing Ways Of Flight Attendants

From sexy stewardesses to former NYPD officers, AOL Travel charts how cabin crews have changed over the decades.

It's a stunning evolution for a profession that was once considered glamorous and sexy. The job has been a window on American attitudes towards women ever since 1930, when Ellen Church became the first "stewardess" on Boeing Air Transit (which later became United Airlines). Legislation finally forced airlines to hire men as flight attendants in significant numbers in the 1990s, and deregulation, economic contraction and, above all, 9/11 have changed the face of the profession.

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