B747 - Følelsesladet farvel til Qantas` siste av typen - Australian Aviation

THE QUEEN OF THE SKIES BIDS HER FINAL FAREWELL

written by Adam Thorn July 22, 2020

The final Qantas 747 departs Sydney for Los Angeles on 22 July 2020 (Australian Aviation)

In 1971, Qantas took the biggest gamble in its history and spent $135 million – or around $1.5 billion in today’s money – on purchasing four Boeing 747s. “At the time,” explained chief executive Alan Joyce, “people thought supersonic travel was the way of the future.”

Today, almost 50 years on, that purchase looks set to be remembered as the shrewdest in Australian aviation history.

On Wednesday though, Qantas finally said goodbye to the very last of its active 747s, when VH-OEJ departed Sydney Airport for Los Angeles, before heading to its final resting place in the Mojave Desert.

Australian Aviation, along with 150 lucky Qantas employees, was privileged enough to be there for the Queen of the Skies’ final farewell.

Attendees were invited to sign the underside of the aircraft, before Joyce took to the stage to deliver a tribute to the aircraft the airline still considers its own.

“The 747 changed world aviation, changed Qantas and changed Australia,” said Joyce. “It’s an aircraft with an amazing history, an aircraft that has really made a difference to a lot of people.”

Speaking at the unassuming Hangar 96 at Sydney Airport, Joyce explained how it was Qantas’ engineers who helped design the original model, and how the ‘Jumbo Jet’ was the first aircraft to allow Australians to explore the world – and for the world to explore Australia.

It drove down prices and meant that ordinary Aussies could get to Europe with just one stopover, and then North America with none.

“Airfares were unbelievably expensive,” said Joyce. “Now, hundreds of millions of people can travel when they couldn’t before.” He pointed out, too, its unique role in rescuing Australians in times of national crisis.

In 1974, he said, the aircraft evacuated 674 Australians out of Darwin when Cyclone Tracy wreaked its havoc.

“It’s still the record for the maximum amount of people that have ever flown on the 747,” he said. “Kids were strapped to their parents in seats. But the aircraft was there to make sure they got out that Christmas.

“After the Bali bomb in 2002, the first 747 went in after 24 hours and eight more 747s followed. It was there in 2004, too, in Sri Lanka and the Maldives when the Boxing Day Tsunami hit and also brought in badly needed medical supplies into those destinations. And it was there in 2011 when the Arab Spring meant Aussies were in danger in Cairo.”

In fact, the last rescue mission saw the 747 bring hundreds of stranded citizens home from the COVID-19 epicentre of Wuhan in February this year.

QF7474 finally departed at 3:28pm, with Qantas’ first female captain, Sharelle Quinn, leading the team. “I have flown this aircraft for 36 years and it has been an absolute privilege,” she told reporters.

After an emotional take-off to the tune of I Still Call Australia Home, the 17-year-old Boeing 747-438 flew over Sydney’s CBD, Harbour and beaches before heading to the HARS Museum, where it dipped its wings in a final salute to the first 747-400 housed at the attraction, VH-OJA.

Then, unexpectedly, Quinn drew the Qantas Kangaroo in the sky as the aircraft headed off to its final resting place in the Mojave Desert, via a quick freight drop off in Los Angeles.

Today, there are thought to be only 30 747 passenger jets left in service globally and 132 in storage.

According to data provider Cerium, freighters account for more than 90 per cent of the aircraft flying.

In the past few months alone, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and KLM have all announced plans to fast-forward the retirement of their 747s, with BA, the holder of the largest fleet, thought not to be planning any farewell at all.

As part of the Qantas ceremony, first officer Jeff Kale – who estimates he has logged more than 12,500 hours in the 747’s cockpit – wrote a poem that will be left in the logbook of OEJ when it arrives in the Mojave Desert.