From 1964 to 1969 (from 8 years old) my older brother I regularly flew between London Airport (LHR) and Kennedy NY or Dulles DC. and always loved going up on the roof to watch the planes and hear that wonderful din. Connies, DC3s Stratos, Viscounts, Comets, Caravelles, Britannias, 707s, DC8s, VC 10s and many others, all so distinctive and exciting.
Also a grandstand view of all the airport vehicles like fuel tankers with extra high windscreens and my favourite of all those lovely BEA AEC Regal coaches with the double-decker split windscreens and poop deck, one of which is briefly visible in cyflyer's (ahem!) video.
I bought a DVD of the Look at Life in the 60s Civil Aviation DVD and recommend it highly,it's all there to see and enjoy.
Back in those days everything about flying seemed to be exciting and the whole aviation industry seemed to party to this, including providing OPEN viewing areas. Ascending or descending the rear stairs at a VC 10 put you almost in reaching distance of the Conways and you could look right into them. A bus or articulated truck/bus conversion drove you to near your plane, then a car with on-built stairs arrived for you to climb up, and all the time you could gaze at the planes.
Flying nowadays has been sanitised and normalised. You only finally see your plane from behind double glazing at the gate. You can sometimes see planes to-ing and fro-ing outside but you can barely hear them. Then you walk through the tunnel straight into the plane. The person at the window seat keeps the shutter closed throughout the flight, there's no Junior Jet Club, no visiting or even seeing the flight deck and the company's magazine is full of just about everything except aviation.
Yes flying is now safer, cheaper and more reliable; security is now more important and processing millions of passengers is top priority for an airport. I understand all that, but the popularity of flying has made it a far less exciting activity.