Only slightly off-topic:
In 1969 I had lunch at a Chinese dive (I'm sure it's the same one that Ernie Gann describes) with Benny Howard, who had been a line pilot back in Ford Trimotor days. Benny with his sly smirk asked me if I knew what the first major breakthrough in airline travel was. I must have proposed a half-dozen technical ideas - retracting gear, NACA cowls, radio nav, ... but he poo-pooed them all.
"No," he said, "The first major advance was when the airsickness rate fell below 75%!"
(I've been waiting to use this > > >)
