Tuesday 9 July 2019 – 267 681
QANTAS
Founders Museum was today’s destination. https://qfom.com.au/
It was again a very full day with an enormous amount of information
available. We started in the museum
part. Hayden loved the flight simulator
and even managed to master take off and landing. We did a jet tour, which included an external
look at a DC-3, internal and external detailed tour of a Boeing 747, and of a
Boeing 707 that had been kitted out like a luxury yacht.
The
original 1920’s QANTAS hangar is still in place at the museum (which is not
surprisingly at the Longreach Airport).
After exploring this we returned to the museum to explore some
more. Five new things I learnt today
- There was a system of lights (rotating beacon
style) on the top of a windmill style frame between Cloncurry and Longreach to
enable night flying
- QANTAS was the first airline outside the United
States to order a Boeing jet aircraft
- The first paying passenger was 84 years old and
had undertaken the same trip by bullock wagon when younger
- QANTAS built their own planes under license
from De Haviland for a period
- The Boeing 707 on display had been sitting idle
in a field in England and was completely restored before being flown to
Australia. It took approximately 15 000
volunteer man hours to achieve
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