Farewell – Australia’s Queen of the Skies – Qantas Boeing 747

Today, 22 July 2020 at 2pm marks the last flight out of Australia for our last Qantas Boeing 747-400 aircraft from Sydney to Los Angeles and then onto its resting place in the Mojave Desert. The Boeing 747 marked 49 years of superior service and is classed as the best ever passenger plane built. Further below the photos is one of my favourite memories of this enormous plane.

COVID-19 virus has brought the retirement earlier from the original timeframe of December 2020. Boeing 787 has replaced the old girl due to the economics of today’s standards and less fuel requirement. The 747 was paramount in allowing ordinary Australians to afford air travel back in 1971 to far-away lands when it was previously out of reach. It was the first plane to fly non-stop from Perth to London in 1984.

Qantas was world renowned in having their entire international fleet with the Jumbo 747 – 4 jet engine aircraft. Aviation data now shows 30 only 747 aircraft still in service with 93% solely as freighters. This flight to Los Angeles will be a freight trip as well and will be labelled as QF7474. Australia has 2 remaining Jumbo 747 in display museums. One at the HARS Aviation Museum at Albion Park (Wollongong, New South Wales) and the other at Qantas Founders Museum in Longreach Queensland (birthplace of Qantas).

The past week Qantas has arranged for one-hour farewell flights from Sydney, Brisbane & Canberra for enthusiasts, past employees and the like to provide a fitting farewell opportunity. Melbourne was omitted due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

Sharelle Quinn will command the final flight to Los Angeles, who has flown the jumbo for 36years and was the first Qantas female captain and another long serving pilot will forward it to the Mojave Desert in California.

One can’t imagine how many flights the 747 mastered and for Qantas there has never been a crash of their aircraft which is the only airline in the world that can state that achievement. It is estimated there were 250 million people transported over the 49years. Again, the 747 is the best passenger aircraft built. Qantas has used the 747 aircraft to do numerous mercy flights internationally & at home over its life span for emergency equipment and for passengers as well. Such a remarkable plane.

The Qantas airline’s, with its 65 jumbo jets flew over 3.6 billion kilometres over the 49years service which is just mind blowing.

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Qantas had 2 aircraft especially painted to reflect our Indigenous community. Nalanji Dreaming, above, is a celebration of the balance and harmony of nature in Australia and reflects the lush colour palette of tropical Australia. The themes of the coast and reef were designed to complement the Red Centre and Northern Territory and motifs of Wunala Dreaming, launched the previous year.

My Favourite Qantas 747 Memory

Being a Cwlth employee supervising multi-million dollar major works of various nature (some secret) I was seconded in 1986 to be part of the QA & Contract Specialist Management Team to oversee the construction of several taxiways, diversion of SW Sewer Outflow Channels, fuel lines, etc to improve the Sydney Mascot Airport and to do pre-works to the upcoming 2^nd runway, now in operation.

One day, we had to allow the full use of the runway (we previously had 25% of the runway for construction work) to be used again however we had a junction joint to overcome (recessed joint at the new taxiway/ runway junction). Numerous large steel plates (footpath crossing plates used in city high rise constructions were used). These plates, about 12, were 2400 x 1200 x 22mm thick steel & very heavy. They were placed the entire width of the taxiway joint (23metres) by a Hi-Ab truck (crane truck) & at the pressure end, the hole was filled with numerous sand bags tight. Us Managers, Civil Aviation, contractors, etc were all lined up 25m from the runway edge across the new taxiway to watch the first Qantas 747 takeoff at 3pm. The aircraft started from the Northern end and after about 150m came across our new taxiway. The outside jet engine blasted the sand bags & picked up the end steel plate like a piece of cardboard which flew completely over the entire 23m wide taxiway some 20m into the air & vertically stuck into the ground adjacent. Once the initial shock was overcome, we had to get the Hi-Ab truck back on site to pull it out & replace it back into position; plus, a concrete truck to mass concrete the end in, as the sand bags did not work. Some hours later other aircraft were allowed to takeoff. The concrete just held enough but had to be replaced at times but the steel plates stayed in place. Whew!! Talk about awesome jet power. Shame this was not filmed but it is firmly implanted into my memory.

Hope the above provided some input into this special occasion and gave you your favourite Boeing 747 aircraft memory? Sadly, I was never provided a 747 when I was flying internationally.

Thank you for reading my blog and hopefully I will receive some of your comments and experiences. Please stay safe, happy & healthy.