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Planes gone by: the Super Constellation Padraig made its first flight from Dublin to New York in 1958
Fifty years ago this month, on a chilly Monday evening, Aerlinte Eireann launched its first transatlantic flight out of Ireland, changing the way we travel forever.
Who would have thought back then we'd be hopping over the ocean for long weekends of shopping or that the planes of today would be eight storeys high?
On April 28, 1958, the Super Constellation Padraig, a four engine propeller plane known affectionately as Connie, flew from Dublin to New York with 95 passengers on board.
Despite the sense of awe she inspired in Dubliners on the day of her delivery, when she was flown low over the city to greet them, she could muster up speeds of just 320mph, taking 12 hours to cross the Atlantic.
Today, the A330 makes the journey in roughly half that time.
Two years later, when Aerlinte Eireann was renamed Aer Lingus, meaning air fleet, the airline entered the jet age when the first Boeing 720s were dispatched.
Five decades on, another aviation milestone was reached last month when the extraordinary super-jumbo, the Airbus A380, landed in London on its European debut. Dubbed the aircraft of the future, it can hold 800 passengers, has a wing span the length of a football pitch, and is so big a new pier had to be built in Heathrow Airport to house it.
Fifty years is a long time in aviation. Who knows how we'll be flying in 2058.
n If you're thinking of holidaying in Iceland, take a rain-check. The country's government has said it is likely to resume commercial whale-hunting in May, leading to calls for a tourist boycott from marine conservation groups.
Two years ago, Iceland sparked international condemnation when it broke a global moratorium on the practice and became the second country, after Norway, to hunt the great Atlantic creatures.
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