Vintage photos of flying show things you'd never get away with on a plane today

Irish aviator Lady Mary Heath took a swig of whisky before flying at an altitude of 20,000 feet in 1928. The first female commercial pilot in the UK, Heath became the first person to fly the 10,000-mile-trip from South Africa to London in 1928, according to the Irish Emigration Museum.

The rules about pilots consuming alcohol were less strict then. Today, on-duty pilots cannot have a blood alcohol level of 0.04 or higher or consume alcohol within eight hours of a flight, according to Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute.

In 1955, a KLM secretary was photographed hard at work dictating notes on her typewriter from her airplane seat.

When booking a ticket, passengers could choose between smoking and non-smoking sections.

Smoking on planes wasn't fully banned by the federal government until 2000, Insider's Thomas Pallini reported.

While real silverware is still available in some business and first-class sections, most airlines serve meals with plasticware.

Metal knives were banned on planes after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, The Chicago Tribune reported. Now, only plastic or round-bladed butter knives are allowed in carry-on luggage.

Cockpit doors did have locks prior to 9/11, but after the attacks, the doors were required to be grenade-proof and only unlockable from the inside, according to the FAA.

Pilots do occasionally allow young children and aviation enthusiasts into the cockpit during boarding or after landing, but not mid-flight, One Mile At A Time reported in 2022.