Commercial Planes of Yesteryear

I think it's mostly how you remember it.

 

Back in the day the airlines always used full power for all take offs. To day they use a term called derate. Basically they realized there was no need to always use full power and they could save some wear and tear on the engines. At times they still do use full power but they are under conditions where the acceleration doesn’t feel as strong because full power is used at max take off weights on hot days. Another thing is back in the 60s and 70s the airlines were regulated and they had pretty light passenger loads.
As far as landings go it seems to me that the 737 max has incredibly high landing speeds. They basically use the same size wing and keep putting a bigger and bigger fuselage on it so the plans has to go faster to fly. This is just an educated guess but I’d say the 737 flies final at least 20 knots faster than the 757. The 727 had one of the Highest coefficient of lift wing of any airliner ever made. The three holler had no issues flying into Chicago Midway.

 

When the first jets came along, the airports they used had to lengthen their runways to 10,000 feet or more, and with the rather feeble thrust of early turbojets, they often needed every foot! Today's jets generally have power to spare and a lot of flights I've taken rotate at about 6,000 feet or so.

 

They were, but you have to go back to before the early 80s for that to be an issue. In the 1960s, yes. In the 1980s reduced power takeoffs were pretty normal. I think the reduced power takeoff thing actually started with the turbocompound radials in the 1950s.

The 727 did have a lot of thrust, so if you were riding on those regularly (they were already starting to go away in the 80s) then I can see it.