Dan,
I also liked the little slice if history this article provides. What an adventure, flying across the US in an airplane like a Douglas DC-1 or a Boeing 247. The take-off alone must must have been thrilling, listening to the twin 700+ horsepower engines throttling up, noticing your seat leveling off as the increasing ground speed pops the tail up off the runway, then feeling the gravity-defying rush as the wheels leave the ground and you watch the earth falling away beneath you.
The anticipation for a trip of this magnitude in 1933 would have been nearly as exhilarating as the flight itself. There were only 474k total air passengers during the entire year, against a population of a tad over 125.5 million, roughly 1 flier for every 26.5 people. Today that number is 1 for6.
Chris,
Five hundred 1932 dollars is somewhat comparable to 8,400 2010 dollars (CPI calculator). I have no idea what the exact same trip would cost today, but I think it would more than $8,400.00.