France’s flag-carrying airline was first to order Sud Aviation’s underrated Caravelle, which had its maiden flight in 1955. Powered by two Rolls-Royce Avon turbo-jet engines, it had a cruising speed of 500mph.

One of the best-selling commercial jets, the US-made Boeing 727 was designed to be suitable for shorter runways and developing countries. Sales of 1,832 were achieved between 1962 and 1984.

In 1964, Queen Elizabeth II flew on the first aircraft to bear the name Air Canada (previously it was Trans-Canada Airlines). The plane that carried her was the US-developed Douglas DC-8.

Launched in 1946, Alitalia was Italy’s flag carrier and largest airline. It was government-owned until 2009 after which it struggled, and sold up to ITA Airways in 2021. They flew this Caravelle from 1960.

Manufactured in the UK, the Vickers Viscount 804 was first flown in 1957. Refurbished planes were bought by Pearl Air, which operated from 1975 to 1977 on the Caribbean island of Grenada.

Delta’s Houston to New York route ran the first Convair 880 service in 1960. It was created to compete with the Boeing 707 by General Dynamics, who didn’t consider it a success.

Entering service in 1968, this US-made airliner was bought by Air Afrique. The pan-African airline flew for 41 years using the slogan ‘les jets du soleil’, but went into liquidation in the aftermath of 9/11.

Qantas ordered four Electras in 1958 for use on international flights including their Sydney to Hong Kong service. One later flew for the Equadorian Air Force until it was destroyed in a belly landing in 1984.

This early 1960s plane proved a problematic buy for AA, but a marketing success. The postcard describes it as “quiet, comfortable, dependable… the most advanced jet airliner in commercial aviation”.

The Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident was powered by three Rolls-Royce Spey engines, plus one Rolls-Royce RB 162 booster jet and cruised at 610mph. By 1965, BEA, then the UK's largest domestic airline, owned 15.

Hungary’s flag-carrying airline flew out of Budapest to 50-plus cities in 34 countries between 1946 and 2012. In that time it switched from Soviet-era planes to Western aircraft; its first buy was a Boeing 737-200 in 1988.

Delta took its first Boeings in 1972, when it merged with Northeast Airlines. The following year it started using the Boeing 727-232 Advanced Model, the last of which retired in 2003.

Japan’s flag carrier ordered three Concordes but cancelled in 1973 over concerns about costs during the oil crisis. It continued its long history with Boeing. It was a 727 that was involved in the fascinating 1970 hijacking, in which a Japanese airport was disguised as a North Korean one to try foil the attack.

The first plane of Israel’s national airline was an adapted military aircraft, but it has long operated an all-Boeing fleet, including the 720, which is shown here and was manufactured between 1960 and 1967.

The first Soviet airliner that matched Western requirements, the Yak-40 completed its maiden flight for Aeroflot in 1968. The postcard shows its final adaptation, in 1975.

The Swiss flag carrier used the DC-8 from1960. In 1970, one of its fleet, a DC-8-53, was a victim of the Dawson’s Field hijackings, and was blown up after six days in Jordanian desert. All 155 passengers and crew were freed.

Two brothers from Cairo launched Zas in 1982 using a variety of old and contemporary aircraft. The MD 82 was one of the newest, and production continued for three years longer than the airline, which folded in 1995.

National Airlines bought its first Electra in 1959, eventually owning 17. All held a perfect safety record although, in 1965, a young Cuban hijacked a Miami-Key West flight in order to ‘rescue’ his family in Havana. He was overpowered.

Until Pan Am folded in 1991 it was operating around 100 727s. The company struggled after the Lockerbie disaster in 1988 then failed when the Gulf War caused fuel prices to rise and a downturn in transatlantic routes

Emperor Haile Selassie (helped by TWA) opened Ethiopian Airlines in 1946. In the late 20th century it flew mostly Boeings from its HQ at Addis Ababa Airport. The description says only ‘Boeing Fan Jet’ so the model is unclear.

Northwest Airlines - which was eventually absorbed into Delta- had an initial fleet of 10 Electras. In 1960 it was flying on their New York-Seattle route and in the Midwest and Florida.

The 727 also found favour across the Arab world, as the hardware of choice at Air Algerie, Syrianair, Alia (Jordan), Kuwait Airways, Libyan Arab Airways and Iraqi Airways. (The first aircraft at the now-mighty Emirates Airline was a pair of secondhand 727s back in 1985.)

The second jet after the Boeing 707 in the US, UA’s postcard description boasts that it “spans the continent at nearly 10 miles per minute and puts Hawaii only five hours away from the mainland.”

Unusually, the registration number of this 1961 airliner, JA8023, is included on the postcard. It is recorded on aviation-safety.net as taking its final flight, a training session, at Iki Airport on 27 February 1965. Six people were on board and ‘the aircraft was performing a low pass training,’ says the report, ‘when, at 150 feet, the aircraft descended fast and struck the runway. The Convair slid and caught fire.’ Aircraft damage was ‘beyond repair’. ‘Fatalities: 0’.