Made in 1961, AN AIRPLANE TRIP BY JET features a United DC-8 aircraft flying out of New York International Airport, or Idlewild, later to be re-named JFK Airport, bound for San Francisco. The new jetway, a moveable bridge connecting the airport terminal to the plane, is shown along with many other modern features of the airport. On the aircraft, stewardess service is seen including a standard safety lecture at the 4:30 mark, a meal served in flight at 6:30, and more.

The Douglas DC-8 (also known as the McDonnell Douglas DC-8) is a four-engine long-range narrow-body jet airliner built from 1958 to 1972 by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Launched after the competing Boeing 707, the DC-8 nevertheless kept Douglas in a strong position in the airliner market, and remained in production until 1972 when it began to be superseded by larger wide-body designs, including the Boeing 747, McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. United Airlines chose the DC-8 over the Boeing 707.

John F. Kennedy International Airport was originally Idlewild Airport after the Idlewild Beach Golf Course that it displaced. It was built to relieve LaGuardia Airport which was overcrowded soon after opening in 1939. Construction began in 1943, and about $60 million was initially spent of governmental funding, but only 1,000 acres (400 ha) of land on the site of the Idlewild Golf Course were earmarked for use.

The project was renamed Major General Alexander E. Anderson Airport in 1943, after a Queens resident who had commanded a Federalized National Guard unit in the southern United States and died in late 1942. In March 1948 the New York City Council changed the name to New York International Airport, Anderson Field, but the common name was "Idlewild" until 1963.

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