In pictures: Amazing aircraft interiors from the past

An icon of the air, the jumbo jet is not long for this world. Already being phased from airline fleets before Covid, the impact of travel restrictions has hastened its demise. In October, BA said goodbye to its last Heathrow-based 747, and on Friday Virgin Atlantic will host a farewell party for its recently retired fleet.

Unveiled in 1969, the 747 "personified ambition", according to airline pilot Charlie Page. "It was inspirational. If you put your mind to it, you could achieve anything." The jumbo's unmistakable exterior, to this untrained eye, has barely changed, but the cabin was a very different place 50 years ago. So let's step inside the 747 of yesteryear, and explore the interiors of other iconic – but lost – passenger aircraft.

The 747's first scheduled service took off on January 22, 1970 – a Pan Am connection from New York to London. Success would not be immediate – the recession of 1969-70 meant Boeing only sold two of the planes between September 1970 and the end of 1971 – but the 747 would soon become a fixture in the heavens.

Its spiral staircase was one of its most iconic features. Sadly, the 747-300, introduced in 1986, used a straight stairway to accommodate more seats.

There was much more space than modern travellers are used to. The 747s operated by the likes of Pan Am and TWA offered 34-36 inches of "pitch" (the distance between seats), compared with the 32 that is typical of today's long-haul jets.

Never mind the legroom – we can't quite get over the headroom:

Up the spiral staircase, luxuries awaited:

But in the galley, things looked more familiar:

Passenger planes weren't always so impressive. Here's the interior of the Supermarine Swan flying boat. Only one was built, and it offered services between England and France from 1924 until 1927.

The wicker seats on the Dornier Komet, a German aircraft from the 1920s, weren't even nailed to the floor.

We prefer the plush fabrics on these armchairs, found on a French Farman plane from 1928.

Coffee is served on board a Transcontinental Air Transport service. In the earliest days of aviation, all the flight attendants were men – fliers had to wait until 1930 for the first female (Ellen Church was her name).

The cabins rather resembled cramped train carriages, with the addition of some handsome lamps and a large case of booze.

Here's a Douglas DC-1, kitted out with what looks like garden furniture from Homebase. The gentleman reading the newspaper is accepting the lady's fully reclined seat with all the stoicism one would expect of the period.

Now you're talking. The China Clipper, the first of three Martin M-130 four-engine flying boats built for Pan Am, offers a first glimpse at the luxurious Golden Age of Flying. It flew from 1934 until 1945, when it, er, crashed, killing 23 passengers and crew (seven survived).

This Imperial Airways plane showcases one of the earliest examples of a winged headrest, a design that would become de rigeur.

Imperial was the forerunner to BOAC, which eventually became British Airways.

This 1938 DC-2 offered rotating seats that were conducive to on board conviviality.

The DC-3 offered seating of three abreast – introducing the world to the concept of window and aisle. And lo! Seat-back pockets!

A modern photo of a vintage cabin. This is the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the first commercial plane with a pressurised cabin.

The DC-6 is one of the oldest aircraft models still in use. We really can't understand why bunk beds aren't around on modern jets.

On board a Lockheed Constellation in 1952. Cabins are starting to get more crowded.

The British de Havilland Comet featured round windows (something that would prove its downfall) and a number of seats that faced one another. The photograph below was taken in 1952.

The Soviet Tupolev Tu-104 was the second jetliner to enter regular service, and a mainstay of Aeroflot's fleet in the 1950s and 1960s.

The Boeing 707 was unveiled in 1958 and is widely credited with ushering in the Jet Age.

The plane boasted all the latest luxuries, such as reading lights, flight attendant call buttons, and emergency oxygen masks.

1958 was the first year in history that more people travelled across the Atlantic by plane than by ship

The Convair 880 was the fastest jet transport in the world when it was introduced in 1959. The club compartment is shown below.

Things became very stylish in the 1960s. Just look at those ceiling lights! This is a Lockheed L-1011.

We'll finish with – you guessed it – Concorde. It looked great from the outside, but the interior was surprisingly poky.

"To travel in, she is rather like an airborne Tube train – admittedly with a few knobs on," wrote Nigel Richardson for Telegraph Travel in 1995. "She is cramped; she rattles and roars; apart from take-off (it feels near vertical, like being on a Virtual Reality Apollo mission) there is no particular sensation of the aphrodisiac of speed; there are no films to watch; the ratio of passengers to toilets is 25:1 on a full aircraft, compared to 9:1 First Class on a 747." Read the full story here.