Whenever Frank Sinatra sang “Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away,” the image of a Boeing 707, all etched-white vapour trails jetting across some deep blue transcontinental stratosphere, could never be far from mind. This song was from Sinatra’s album of the same name. It was released in January 1958, a month after the epochal, swept-wing jet airliner made its maiden flight. Before the year was out, the sleek 707 was in service with Pan-Am. It was to change the way we fly and see the world.

Curiously, the graphic designer working for Capitol Records appeared to have been behind the times. The artwork for Come Fly With Me shows a snappily dressed Sinatra taking the hand of a girl as he cocks his thumb towards a TWA Lockheed Constellation, the last of the great American piston-engine airliners. Constellations were to be pushed aside by the all-conquering 707, an aircraft synonymous with the new jet age and a design that led, step by rapid step, to the Boeing 747 ‘Jumbo Jet’ and the era of mass air-travel. The 707 might have been one of the most glamorous of all forms of transport when it entered service with Pan-Am, yet its very success led ultimately to the horrendous and heartbreakingly banal conditions the majority of us fly in today.

As for Sinatra, he so admired the new 707 – the aircraft that should have been on the sleeve of Come Fly With Me – that he bought his very own. This was an ex-Qantas 707, built in 1964, that, since 1998, has belonged to John Travolta, Hollywood star and pilot. Travolta’s estate in Florida has its own runway. Some people like to gaze at the curves of their prize classic car, or latest Ferrari: Travolta opts for the sight of a four-engine, 600mph jet.