Longreach : QANTAS founders museum

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We didn't stop at Longreach overnight,

 we had previously stayed there back in 2019, but unfortunately on that occasion we didn't get to visit the QANTAS museum , so we decided to grab that opportunity this time.

The plane in the above image behind our tour guide Mark is a perfect replica of the first QANTAS plane. I’m not going to document the full history of QANTAS because it is really quite a large and interesting story.

However QANTAS commenced with Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness whom met whist serving in the Australian flying corps during world war 1. They recognised the commercial potential of Aviation, this was further solidified whilst they assisted in surveying and assisting to build runways for the Great Air race  from the UK to Australia. 

With the backing of Fergus McMaster a grazier, QANTAS was incorporated in 1920 in Winton, Western Queensland. They were later joined by Arthur Baird an aircraft engineer and this was the founding members of the company. 

Initially the airline did joy flights and charter work, however they were soon awarded with a postal contract.

The service went from strength to strength. 

The founders museum has 8 or so full size planes that you can look in and see.  The Planes ages spans across the life of the service. It was really interesting to see the evolution of the planes , particularly the changes in passenger seating and where the pilots sat.

The above plane is a Boeing 707 the first of QANTAS’s JET fleet . This plane was especially built to meet QANTA’S requirements. QANTAS requested that 13 planes be built , 3 metres shorter than the companies designed models. This was due to QANTAS being aware that some  of the airstrips that they often landed were short and the needed a plane that could land on a  smaller airstrip. The plane above is the first of these jets built for QANTAS, it has had quite a life , a free working for QANTAS for quite a few years  including being stripped out to become a private jet with gold seat belts and a queensize bed.

 

the plane was used by various famous persons , including the Jackson 5. When it was being flown home to the founders museum, the plane stopped off at John Travolta’s airstrip to meet its sibling No 13 off the production line.


A few years ago QANTAS donated the below Boeing 747 city of Bunbury, which remains fully set up as it was when in service.

Interestingly whilst they flew and landed this plane into Longreach airport , it will be unable to leave unless the airstrip is significantly lengthened.

Our tour guide Mark was amazing and had a great understanding of the history of QANTAS, an intricate knowledge of the planes. 

We decided to make our tour extra exciting and signed up for the “Wing walk” 

The wing walk included sitting in the cockpit and got to press buttons and play with levers ect…. With a detailed explanation of what each button and lever controlled.

Then we were all harnessed up and got to walk out on the wing. The wing sits as high as a three story building. It was a really interesting tour, we both really enjoyed.


Until the next blog 

Everyday deserves a story

The Touring Knights

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