What year did in-cabin Intercom became common?

[corn_flake]

Checkout this old Piper promotion video.  Notice no one is wear headset.  I wonder when did in-cabin intercom became a common feature?  For that matter, does any one still fly without a headset?  

 

[carusoam]

Headsets first...

Intercoms were add-on portable devices in the mid to late 90s...

What’s missing is all the cigarettes...

-a-

[flyboy0681]

Boy did this bring back memories. I remember my flight instructor wore a Brooks Brothers suit to my first lesson. I seem to recall I wore a navy blue blazer and gray flannel slacks. Boy were those the days. It was swell.

[Hank]

I wore a coat and tie at my last job in college in the 80s. My first "real" job I wore jeans, then hit the Fortune 500 and had to go khaki at two of them before going small company again, still in kahki.. Now I'm back in the Big Leagues and back in jeans. Business Casual is a wonderful thing! Don't want to go back . . . .

My first flight lessons in the 90s were in jeans, but I don't remember if we wore headsets in the Beech Skipper or not. I do remember the handheld mic, and dad's advice to not drop the plane and fly the microphone. I also remember having mic fright . . . . Makes me think "no headsets or intercom," but I could be wrong.

[EricJ]

I suspect I owe my tinnitus to too many hours flying with no headsets back in the day.   

What?

 

[Ron McBride]

I remember late 80s early 90s no intercoms, my dad was with me and asked if I was going to use the headset on the whole trip?  All 8 hours?   I was told, you won’t be able to hear the engines.   He was a pilot also.   I have from 68 when dad began flying until then without headsets.  No hearing damage at all.  
 

 

 

[M20F]

Headsets were not very good until the 21st century.  I can’t exactly remember when I transitioned but started flying 88 and we never used head sets (nor did I know anyone who uses them).  I can’t hear anymore (more due to John Deere then Al Mooney). 

[BDPetersen]

In the early to mid 80’s. I had a student that built one in about 1980 that was as good what was becoming commercially available. No longer having to strain my vocal chords to be heard by a student was the benefit I most appreciated.

[Andy95W]

I learned to fly in 1989/90. Nobody wore headsets. 

I was stationed in Korea 1990/91. 

When I started instrument training in 1992, my instructor told me I either had to buy a headset or find a different flight school. 

So my answer to the OP is sometime in 1991.

[N201MKTurbo]

Early 90s

[RLCarter]

I started in 1979 in a brand new (less than 40 tach hrs) Piper Tomahawk only had a hand held mic, no headset provisions. I do remember some of the ground crew wore ear muffs

[flyboy0681]

2 hours ago, EricJ said:

I suspect I owe my tinnitus to too many hours flying with no headsets back in the day.   

What?

 

I'm wondering the same thing. I flew my first 300 hours without a headset and I developed tinnitus about 7 years ago which is unbearable at times. I walk around 24 hour a day with loud hissing emanating from somewhere in my head.

[Andy95W]

There are lots of folks (particularly men) who are suffering from tinnitus that haven't been subjected to loud noises.  I think it's an age thing that might have been exacerbated by loud noises.

[carusoam]

PMc,

That is the funniest tidbit...

They weren’t expecting to be handing that line to THE headset guy...!  

Best regards,

-a-

[N201MKTurbo]

My hearing sucks, along with my eyesight.

I think the wind noise from riding a motorcycle for 400000 miles without a helmet did more to my hearing than flying.

Or maybe it was the rock concerts, or my time as an engineer in the car stereo industry?

So many things to choose from. Or maybe I’m just getting old?

huh?  What did you say? 

[MikeOH]

1 hour ago, pmccand said:

My owners manual to the M20B says that the plane had a “whisper-quiet cabin”...  

uh hm....

 

Hmm, must have taken out the sound-proofing by the time Mooney built my F

[MooneyMitch]

I remember my first cabin intercom was 1987 in my first Mooney (F).

The unit was a portable Sigtronics with lots of cords and cables going everywhere. 

[Shiny moose]

In 2005 I took a new corporate job, they were flying a Old falcon 10(very loud aircraft with lots of wind noise) without headsets, yelling back and forth and radio over the speaker , After first flight I told them this is not going to work for me and maybe we should use headsets and the intercom that was installed in the aircraft, they were surprised that the aircraft had an intercom they had been flying this aircraft for 10+ years and never knew. I am sure the passengers were relived not to hear all of the yelling from the cockpit anymore haha.

 

[kpaul]

Interesting topic.  I started flying in the mid 80s and never flew an airplane without using a headset until two weeks ago when I flew in a J3 cub with no electrical system.  I guess the 152/172s I rented in the 80s were ahead of their time.

[BDPetersen]

Hearing loss reasons have always been a mystery to me. All of my 74 years have been in noisy airplanes. Backseat of the Stinson, DC-3, DC-6 Boeing jets, walk-arounds on ramps, etc.  First 40 years mostly minimally protected. So I should be deaf, but my hearing is pretty normal. Go figure. When I noticed ears ringing I just got unlisted ears.

[Greg Ellis]

I remember as a kid going flying with my Dad in 1980 (I was 11 years old) when he first got his license.  The Cherokee's he trained in had no intercom.  No headsets.  A single microphone and the overhead speaker.  Even when he got his multi in a Seminole there were no headsets and no intercom. But back then there was a lot less communication with ATC as I recall.  When he bought his first airplane which was a Baron, the pilot and co-pilot had headsets but nothing for the passengers.  I remember having to yell quite a bit to be heard.  When he moved up to the Cessna 340 there were headsets for every seat.

[PaulM]

I learned in 1988 and the standard in the 152 and 172's was speaker and microphone.  My father quickly bought 4 Sigtronics headsets and the 4 place portable intercom + PTT switch.     I believe one of the earliest upgrades in the 172 he bought was a SPA-400 4 place intercom... and 4 headsets were kept in it for lease back, under the idea that it would rent out more often if they were included.   So I would say that personal headset ownership was rare until the mid 90's. 

My friend was given a David Clark setup for Christmas of 1987 in expectation that he was attending Embry-Riddle the next year and would need it.  

We bought one of the early analog ANR headsets, and they worked but drained the battery quickly, and at that cost was only for the pilot to hear ATC better..    

[M20F-1968]

I have to move the clock back a bit.  I learned to fly in 1985 in Portland, OR.  I do not think I few any more than a few months without a headset.  

I know that in the 1985-1988 time frame portable battery powered intercoms were available and were being used.  I got my first one in 1989.  Still have it.

John Breda

[Shiny moose]

I started in 1986 in Germany, we had battery powered, came back to US in 1988 for flight school, it was all self supplied battery operated, if you were wealthy you had a 4 place and not a splitter wire on the 2 place. I think I had a sigtronics!  

Oh and a nice pair of David Clamps, painful but reliable. 

And a old school flight case!! And nos charts in a cardboard box, rich folks had Jepps. I couldnt wait to get to do Jepp updates until I had to do them! Oh those were the good old days.

[N201MKTurbo]

15 minutes ago, Shiny moose said:

I started in 1986 in Germany, we had battery powered, came back to US in 1988 for flight school, it was all self supplied battery operated, if you were wealthy you had a 4 place and not a splitter wire on the 2 place. I think I had a sigtronics!  

Oh and a nice pair of David Clamps, painful but reliable. 

And a old school flight case!! And nos charts in a cardboard box, rich folks had Jepps. I couldnt wait to get to do Jepp updates until I had to do them! Oh those were the good old days.

If you double dog dared me I bet I could I could find unopened jepp update envelopes somewhere in the house or hangar...