Passengers Entering Ford Tri-Motor 4-AT Airplane, 1927

Passenger air travel was a completely new -- and perhaps fearsome -- concept for most Americans in the 1920s. Images like this, used in national advertisements for the Ford Tri-Motor, helped convince a skeptical public of the safety of flying in a Ford plane. These educational advertisements offered an exciting and reassuring description of the flying experience, emphasizing "well-designed, well-constructed machines handled by competent pilots."