Jet Set - Jet Travel

Jet Travel

BOAC inaugurated the world's first commercial scheduled jet service on 2 May 1952, using the de Havilland Comet, followed by the introduction of the Comet 4 in 1958 after a series of accidents in 1953-1954. The first successful service, from October 1958, was the typical "jet set" route, London–New York City. Pan Am quickly followed suit with the Boeing 707.

Other cities on the standard "jet set" routes were Paris, Rome, and Los Angeles. "Jet set" resorts, invariably with white sand and salt water, were circumscribed by modern standards; Acapulco, Nassau, and Huntington Hartford's new Paradise Island (opened in 1962) were taking the place of Bermuda. Meanwhile, Cannes, St. Tropez, Marbella, Portofino, and selected small towns on the French and Italian Riviera were on the jet set itinerary, as well as Capri. Then from 1974, the Greek Islands such as Mykonos were included in the loop.

The original members of this elite, free-wheeling sect were those "socialites" who were not shy about publicity and entertained in semi-public places like restaurants and in night clubs, where the "paparazzi" – a jet set phenomenon – photographed them. They were the first generation that might weekend in Paris or fly to Rome just for a party. Federico Fellini captured their lifestyle in La Dolce Vita (1960).

A sign that "jet set" had lost its first glamorous edge was Vogue Magazine's coinage of the term "the Beautiful People" in the spring of 1962, an expression which initially described the circle that formed around President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Readers of the 15 February 1964 Vogue could learn "What the beautiful people are doing to keep fit." The two phrases ran for a time in tandem; in 1970, Cleveland Amory could fear "that the Beautiful People and the Jet Set are being threatened by current economics."

A more serious economic threat was the 1973 oil crisis, which cast a pall over the idea of jetting about for pleasure. A sign that "Jet Set" had passed from urbane use was the 1974 country song "(We're Not) The Jet Set", in which George Jones and Tammy Wynette claim they are "the old Chevrolet set," as opposed to leading a glamorous, "jet-setting" lifestyle.

The flagging Jet Set gained its second wind with the introduction in 1976 of the supersonic Concorde. Scheduled flights began on 21 January 1976 on the London-Bahrain oil executive route and the distinctly jet-set Paris-Rio de Janeiro (via Dakar) route. From November 1977 the Concorde was flying between standard Jet Set destinations, London or Paris to New York; passenger lists on initial flights were gossip-column material. The Concorde restored the term's cachet: "From rock stars to royalty, the Concorde was the way to travel for the jet set," according to the Nova retrospective special "Supersonic Dream". However, the Concorde was doomed by its sonic boom, inability to achieve global fly-over rights, and its huge thirst for jet fuel, and was retired in 2003. Instead, the Boeing 747, densely packed with passengers, was the craft that revolutionized air travel.

Where English is a second language, "Jet Set" continues its half-life: in the early 1980s, the Argentinian rock band Soda Stereo recorded a successful song "¿Por qué no puedo ser del Jet Set?" (Why can't I belong to the jet set?), and in 2000 French comedy Jet Set made fun of this 'art de vivre'.

Late in the 20th century, "wa-Benzi" became an equivalent term in central Africa, from the luxury image of Mercedes-Benz.