The Six Lives of Braniff International

Having been born in Ft. Worth, Braniff was a big part of my life. It was exciting to fly with them with their service always being fantastic and their food top notch. I remember one of their last flights, I flew with my sons from Dallas to Seattle and their snack service on that flight was a steak sandwich, salad and pecan pie....I can even taste it to this day! Thanks for the memories!

Something happened to Braniff in mid - late 1984. In that period Braniff hired me. I went to the hiring process, medical Etc. On a Thursday I signed the contract to start on Monday. Sunday they called and informed me that they had ceased operation and had to cancel the contract. Several month later I received a check for one week salary. 👍😂

I grew up in a United Airlines household and used to love to go to the old Denver Stapleton Airport, where Branniff shared the "B" concourse with United. The Branniff gates were at the head of the "B" concourse so we had to walk by them to get to our gates further down the concourse. I remember them always being...well...empty, though often with a 727 or DC-8 parked outside. Those Branniff planes and gates were my favorites to look at; they were gorgeous. Oranges, greens, and reds. Some of the prettiest airline liveries of the late 70's and early 80's. Branniff may have been poorly run in terms of fiscal policy, but they were fun to look at.

I havent thought about Braniff and Piedmont in years! Wow this takes me back. Dad used to fly both when Aunt Barbara was a little girl. Happy Saturday and thank you Rory, excellent content as always, and we appreciate the hard work and fine research you put into each and every video you make!

When I think of Braniff I remember the crazy, wild, way out psychedelic 'space bubble' miniskirt uniforms designed by Emilio Pucci and worn by Braniff female flight attendants in the fun, exciting and fashionable swinging sixties, plus the highly distinctive aircraft exteriors painted from nose to tail in one of 15 bright, bold Crayola colors with BI and an American flag above the 'I' on the tail. The planes were called "flying jelly beans" and it was, as Braniff's ads boasted “The end of the plain plane. We don’t get you there any faster. It just seems that way.” Back in those exciting, fun 'anything goes' days Braniff was the grooviest, coolest airline on the planet. They even briefly flew Concorde from New York to Dallas but it didn't make money for the airline because it couldn't fly supersonic over land and thus was no quicker, and a lot more expensive, than a 727 flying the same route. Braniff International ... even the name sounded cool, glamorous and different. Lest anyone miss the underlying message of what a passenger could expect onboard a Braniff plane, the airline asked “Does your wife know you’re flying with us?” and produced an advert called "Braniff Presents The Air Strip" which you can find online. Playboy Magazine even ran a pictorial in its November 1982 issue featuring "The Women Of Braniff." Today in these achingly dull, boring PC and woke times there is nothing even remotely like Braniff, just mundane politically-correct uni-gender utilitarian functionality, and we are unlikely to ever see anything like it again. If you are young e.g. todays Whatsapp/Instagram Generation (so sorry for you ...) you will have absolutely no idea what it was like back then. But if you're interested/curious do an online search for Braniff, its history and uniforms and you might get some idea of what your generation has missed :) Also, check out an interesting online article called Halston flight uniforms for Braniff Archives - Society Texas written by a former Braniff steward about what it was like to fly for the airline. Halston uniforms replaced the Pucci uniforms in 1973, which coincidentally marked the end of the fun swinging 60s.

Harding Lawerence built Braniff into a major player, but his decisions after airline deregulation led to its demise. Lenders wanted their money and wouldn't provide more. By the time Howard Putnam arrived, Braniff barely had enough cash to meet payroll and operating expenses. Increased competition at DFW and forced contraction gave Braniff's customers a reason to go elsewhere. Braniff II and subsequent iterations found it even harder to survive. Great video!

My first was on Braniff flying from Japan to Hawaii in 1968. I had an amazing experience at the age of 8 years old.

Honestly never heard of Branniff until now. You learn something new every day for sure, and fantastic to learn it from you. Another great video!

I've just heard of this airline because it's at the end of episodes of South Park.

I still have some Braniff dinnerware my grandmother had and I remember flying out of Dallas in 92 and seeing a huge number of Braniff planes parked in a holding area at the far end of the airport.

Loved the 727 in that deep, rich brown, and I love your videos dude. Thanks for posting.

As a child in the late 1970's, my family flew quite often from Rio to Miami and back. I remember flying Braniff's DC-8s in a wonderful livery conceived by Calder, the creator of mobiles and stabiles. Art was almost everywhere back then.

prior to this video the only thing i ever knew about Braniff was the loss of one of its BAC-111's in a thunderstorm where it was hit by wind gusts so strong it ripped the tail clean off in flight

I lived in Dallas in the 70s and early 80s -- Braniff got a lot of my business out of DFW. I never gave the livery much thought at the time, but looking back it was certainly striking.

Excellent video again. 👏🙂

In 1961 my first jet flt was a Braniff 707 from San Antonio to Dallas (Love Field). In 1968, while in UT majoring in Transportation, I got a summer job as a BN ticket agent during the World's Fair, HemisFair

You did a fabulous job with this tortured history. One of my interesting but sad career actions was setting in motion Braniff’s 1989 Bankruptcy. At the time I was an executive of International Aero Engines AG, engine supplier to the ex-Pan Am A320’s. I dealt with the three BIACOR executives you referred to. Complete crooks.

Can you imagine the reaction now, if you asked a workforce to work a year without pay?!

The sponsor clips of classic South Park introduced me to Braniff Believe it!

Flew the big orange from Gatwick to DFW in the early 80's, great airline and great service