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Flight Two, The Golden Argosy, for Rome. The flight is now ready for boarding. All passengers holding confirmed reservations . . ."
An airport flight departure announcement meant diverse things to those who heard it. To some, it was a routine summons, a prefix to another tedious, workoriented journey which-had free choice been theirsthey would not have made. For others, a flight announcement spelled a beginning of adventure; for others still, the nearing of an end-the journey home. For some it entailed sadness and parting; for others, in counterpoint, the prospect of reunion and joy. Some who heard flight announcements heard them always for other people. Their friends or relatives were travelers; as to themselves, the names of destinations were wistful not-quite-glimpses of faraway places they would never see. A handful heard flight announcements with fear; few heard them with indifference. They were a signal that a process of departure had begun. An airplane was ready; there was time to board, but no time to be tardy; only rarely did airliners wait for individuals. In a short time the airplane would enter man's unnatural element, the skies; and because

it was unnatural there had always been, and would forever remain, a component of adventure and romance.
There was nothing romantic about the mechanics of a flight announcement. It originated in a machine which in many ways resembled a juke box, except that push buttons instead of coins were required to actuate it. The push buttons were on a console in Flight Information Control-a miniature control tower (each airline had its own F.I.C. or equivalent) -located above the departure concourse. A woman clerk pushed the buttons in appropriate sequence; after that the machinery took over.
Almost all flight announcements-the exceptions were those for special situations-were pre-recorded on cartridge tapes. Although, to the ear, each announcement seemed complete in itself, it never was, for it consisted of three separate recordings. The first recording named the airline and flight; the second described the loading situation, whether preliminary, boarding, or final; the third recording specified gate number and con- course. Since the three recordings followed