QANTAS Celebrates 75 years of Aviation in Australia 1920-1995
The Inspiration. The story of Qantas begins in 1919 when a former Australian Corps officers W
Hudson Fysh and Paul McGuiness became convinced the an air service was the
answer to linking remote outback settlements. Fyshe later wrote: 'We were
convinced of the important part aircraft would eventually play in transporting
mails. passengers and freight over the sparsely populated and practically road
less areas of western and northern Queensland and North Australia' Small Beginnings A wealthy grazier who took little convincing about the benefits of aviation
was Fergus McMaster. McGuiness and Fysh outlined their plans for a
With their former flight sergeant Arthur Baird as aircraft mechanic. Fysh and McGuiness travelled to
Mascot aerodrome in Sydney, where they ordered an Avro aircraft. Eventually a
company named Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited was
established. Now it its acronym QANTAS and it was all formally done
at Gresham hotel, Brisbane on 16th November 1920. In 1921, the Qantas fleet in Winton, comprised of two war surplus biplanes -
Avro 504K with 100 horsepower (74 kilowatt)) water cooled Sunbeam Dyak engine
and a Royal Aircraft Factory BE2E with 90 horsepower (76 kilowatt) air cooled
engine McGuiness and Baird initially flew joy riding and demonstration flights, but
1922 larger aircraft were needed to operate a scheduled airmails service between
Charleville and Cloncurry. The First Passenger
Formative Years In 1924 a four passenger DH50 with an enclosed cabin was
introduced on the same run, marking the introductions of post war commercial
aircraft to Australia. The following year the service was extended a further 400 km from
Cloncurry to Camooweal, calling on route to Mt Isa. a further route extension
from Cloncurry to Normanton was inaugurated on 1st July 1927 with Hudson Fysh as
the pilot. That same year the first de Havilland Moth aircraft was imported from
Qantas. The rest is history as they say. by 1925 Qantas had begun building DH 50 aircraft under licence
at Longreach, site of the flying school it opened the same year. In 1928
Cloncurry became the base for the worlds first Flying Doctor service,
which used Qantas aircraft for the next 21 years to bring medical care to
isolated Australian farms and communities. in 1930 the airline moved its headquarters and workshops to
Brisbane. Wider skies soon beckoned. In April 1931 Qantas carried mail
to Darwin as part of an experimental Australian-United kingdom link with
Imperial Airways, the predecessor of BOAC and in turn British Airways. In 1935, flying as Qantas Empire Airways Ltd(in which Imperial
Airways held a 50% interest), Qantas took over the Darwin-Singapore sector with
specially built four engine DH86 aircraft. This service, with a complement of 10
passengers, took three and half days to cover the 7,0000km route from Brisbane
to Singapore. - at that time the world's fastest overseas commercial service. By the outbreak of World War 2 in 1939 the Qantas headquarters
had moved to Sydney and the flagship was the famous Short C Class Flying Boat,
flying three times a week between Australia and Singapore. When the United kingdom - Australia air route via Singapore
was cut in 1942, Qantas began an operation which pioneered many aspects of long
distance flying. It flew Catalina flying boats non-stop between Perth and Ceylon
( Sri Lank) a 5,650km journey which took up to 30 hours or more. Passengers
became members of the Secret Order of the Double Sunrise as the sun rose
twice during the flights. In the latter stages of the war these flights were operated by
Liberator and Lancastrian aircraft and it was during this period that Qantas
adopted the kangaroo symbol, first carried on a Liberator aircraft . Rapid expansion followed and Qantas began to re-establish its
services using the experience gained in long distance flying during the war
years. The late 1940s were eventful for Qantas. The Australian
Government bought all shares in Qantas in 1947. During the decade the
airline introduced long range, pressurised Lockheed Constellations on the
Kangaroo route to London and began services to Papua New Guinea, Japan and Hong
Kong . Flights to south Africa were introduced in 1952 and
Sandringham flying boats were used to link Australia to islands on the South
West Pacific. With the arrival in 1954 of the company's first Lockheed Super
Constellations, Qantas began flights to around the world services in 1958, when
these aircraft linked Australia with London via the Kangaroo Route and via the
US. Qantas entered the jet age in 1959 when it became the fist
airline outside the US to operate Boeing 707 aircraft. Four jet engines pushed
it along at 885kl per hour. The airline quickly established the first two way round the
world jet service via Australia . Larger, longer range versions pf the 707 and
Lockheed Electra formed the mainstay of the Qantas fleet as service expanded
through the 1960s. in 1971 Qantas introduced new standards of comfort,
service and reliability when it began taking delivery of the advanced B model of
Boeing's new 747. at one stage Qantas was the only airline in the world
operating an all 747 fleet. The airline took delivery of the 747SP ( Special
Performance) aircraft and later the 747-300 series. The airline's first 747-400 series set a world distance record
for a commercial jet when it flew to to London-Singapore on stop in August 1989.
It covered the 18.001 kilometres in just 20 hours, nine minutes and five
seconds. This B747-400 series was named 'Longreach' to signify the aircraft's
long range and to commemorate the airlines' origins. In September 1992 Qantas purchased the successful domestic
carrier Australian Airlines and the government announced that the enlarged
Qantas group would be privatised . Late that year the government accepted the
British Airways$A665 million bid for 25 per cent of Qantas. Toady the Qantas
group employs some 29,000 people in Australia and overseas. Most of the business
is Asia - Pacific area, one of the fastest growing markets in the world. 'It is one of the biggest airlines
in this region and the Qantas Group, including regional airlines, flies more
than 15 million destinations in 26 countries. It has been along journey from that outback
airstrip in 1921, but who can doubt that the story of Qantas is the story of
Australian aviation. Qantas truly and Australian airline' as of the year 1995
service and
McMaster, fired with enthusiasm, convinced business acquaintances to invest with
them.
An 84 years old outback pioneer named Alexander Kennedy become
the first Qantas passenger on a scheduled flight, on 2dn November 1922, was on
the Longreach-Winton-McKinlay-Cloncurry section of the inaugural mails service
from Charleville to Cloncurry.
