FIRST IN FLIGHT

As the jet set era dawns, a brand-new LVCC hosts its first convention.

The newly-opened Las Vegas Convention Center hosted its first show on April 12, 1959. A sign of the new times, the LVCC, which had opened on the site of a former horse racing track, would host The World Congress of Flight. The year was among the very first that air travel would eclipse ocean liners as the preferred way of crossing the Atlantic, and the show gave the public a glimpse of space and aviation progress around the globe. A demonstration from Nellis Air Force Base, including the Thunderbirds, capped off the milestone show.