Qantas: Australia's Flag-Carrying Airline Quiz

Answer: Qantas is an acronym

Qantas is an acronym for Queensland and Northern Territory Ariel Service. In Australia, there is a propensity to shorten names. The name quickly became Q.A.N.T.A.S. and soon after QANTAS. The company in time made the name "Qantas", one of the few words of English origin where there is a "Q" but no "u" following.

Fergus McMaster, a grazier from Western Queensland met Paul McGinness when the former's car axle broke crossing the Cloncurry River. The two discussed the tyranny of distance and thought the future of travel in Australia was aviation. The two travelled to Sydney and ordered two Avro aeroplanes in the name of the Western Queensland Auto Aero Service. It was August 1920. The airline was soon started with its new name in November 1920 and by 1921, it had two planes: an Avro 504K and a Royal Aircraft Factory BE2E. . The company. They made ends meet by offering joy flights to willing passengers and by November 1921, they earned the contract for a scheduled airmail service between Charleville and Cloncurry. This was Australia's first scheduled air service. They moved their tiny office from Winton to the larger Charleville in central Queensland. (Eventually as the company got bigger, it moved to Brisbane then Sydney). Hudson Fysh, a WWII Australian Flying Corps decorated airman and pilot became manager in 1923 and oversaw the steady increase in size and workload of the fledgling airline.

Answer: It flew the planes for what was to becomes the Royal Flying Doctor Service

By 1924 four-passenger DH50s with an enclosed cabin were being used on the Queensland air routes that now totalled over 1300 km. In 1927 it moved its base to Brisbane and started flying out of this hanger to connect up with its outback Queensland Network.

In October 1918 Lieutenant Clifford Peel of the Australian Flying Corps, proposed an air service by the Australian Inland Mission tend the ill, injured and sick in the vast Australian outback. Reverend John Flynn developed the pilot's ideas, as Lt Clifford was killed in action. He founded what was to became known as the Flying Doctor Service, by forming the Australian Aerial Medical Service in March 1928 with a base in Cloncurry. Qantas was contacted to provide the air services and another DH50A was bought for the purpose. The area covered by the service was larger than the area of the United Kingdom The name was changed to the Flying Doctor Service in 1942 and in 1954 it was given a Royal Charter.

Answer: Shorts S.23 Empire flying boats

Qantas connected with Britain's Imperial Airways (a forerunner of British Airways) in 1931 by carrying 25,000 letters from Brisbane to Darwin as the first leg of an Australia-England run. The mail was then carried by Charles Kingsford-Smith in the 'Southern Cross' to Burma, where he connected with Imperial Airways.

In 1934 Qantas Empire Airways Limited was registered in Brisbane, with Imperial Airways and Qantas each holding a half share. The DH86 biplane was chosen to fly the Brisbane to Singapore component of the Australia-Great Britain mail run but its capacity was soon reached. With the introduction of Sydney onto the network, the lack of infrastructure needed to implement flying boats was minimal: mooring buoy, a terminal and a fuelling facility, Qantas started a base at Rose Bay near Sydney's city centre.

The aircraft flew the entire Australia-England route, with the Qantas and Imperial Airways crews changing over in Singapore.

Answer: Ceylon

The daring plan was to fly non-stop from the Swan River in Perth (as far west as practicable) to Colombo in Ceylon using Catalina flying boats. The 5,652km flight was the world's longest non-stop regular passenger flight. Celestial navigation was employed to ensure radio silence over enemy waters.

The Catalina planes, five of them, were so heavy with fuel that if one of the four engines failed, the plane would need to ditch. This never happened. 271 successful flights were made during the war. Each passenger who witnessed the sunrise twice while airborne was awarded a certificate admitting them to the 'Secret Order of the Double Sunrise' at the end of each journey.

Answer: Qantas was restricted to overseas routes

In 1947 Prime Minister Ben Chifley had a nationalisation agenda. He failed to nationalise Australian banks, but the federal government did succeed in buying all the Qantas shares, becoming its new owner. Despite government ownership, Qantas thrived in the post-WWII era, and seven Lockheed Constellation aircraft were ordered. One benefit was that technological advances made because of the war meant newly designed aeroplanes that flew over land were now more advanced than the flying boats, which were eventually phased out. Routes to the US were commenced (instead of British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines which became absorbed by Qantas). Routes to Hong Kong and Japan commenced in 1952.

The Constellations, or Connies as they were affectionately known, were fast, and took only four days to reach London via India or Pakistan. In 1958, two Super Constellations left for flights around the world. One went via the Kangaroo Route across the the Indian Ocean, the other on the Southern Cross route through San Francisco, New York and the Atlantic. Six days later the planes landed from the other direction in Melbourne. Qantas was the first airline to prove round the world travel was feasible. At this point, Qantas was serving 23 different cities around the world.

Answer: The Boeing 707 ushered in the jet era

The British were the first to have a commercially-viable jet airliner flying, but the de Havilland Comet was grounded after two fatal crashes. The Tupolev-104 was flying by 1956 but was restricted to Warsaw Pact countries.

However, when the Americans released the Boeing 707 in 1959 (followed closely by the Douglas DC8 and the Convair 880), the jet age really arrived. Qantas became the first airline outside of the US to fly the planes commercially. This was the plane Australia needed. It was fast and quiet, and could travel long distances before refuelling. Qantas ordered seven initially, and by 1968 they had 21 flying. In 1966 they ordered four Boeing 747s which entered service in 1971. By the time the 707s were phased out in 1979, Qantas was the first airline in the world to have an all-747 fleet. This changed in 1985 with the addition of the Boeing 767 for lower volume routes.

Answer: An Australian coin

The Australian penny featured a kangaroo design that was used in an almost identical configuration on the Australia to Ceylon routes in 1944. The logo evolved and was given wings in the 50s when it became known as the "Flying Kangaroo". In the 1960s, the Flying Kangaroo symbol replaced the "V-Jet" logo on the tail of all Qantas planes.

It has stayed there for over 50 years, with minor development changes over the years. The Qantas brand is now synonymous with its red and white livery and its trademark white kangaroo on a red tail.

Answer: Qantas made a successful $400 million bid to own Australian Airlines

Qantas was expanding rapidly but needed to get people to the major hubs to get them on its planes which were solely flying international routes. It successfully negotiated with the Australian federal government to purchase Australian Airlines AND to fully privatise the merged airline.

This made the capital cities hubs for regional intra-state routes with smaller planes and these capital cities and larger regional centre like townsville and Cairns all connected up with the major international hubs at Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Given that Qantas was a founding member of OneWorld, a multi-airline global alliance and there was a seamless method to get from outback Queensland to say provincial Europe, Asia of the Americas though a single booking system. Smaller Qantas subsidiaries were set up for specific regions or aircraft types and in 2003, Jetstar, Qantas' discount airline was established to capitalise on the burgeoning leisure market. Ansett Australia who competed with Australian Airlines for the major share of the domestic market, went into liquidation and a newcomer Virgin Blue (which of course being Australian had red planes) filled the void and in time became a fierce rival for the domestic market as well as the most profitable international routes.

Answer: Partially true: there had been no crashes in the jet era

Qantas has won many awards for its enviable safety record but the publicity afforded by those few movie lines were priceless. But it is not completely true. Between 1934 and 1951 there were twelve accidents involving Qantas planes with 72 fatalities, half of them occurring during WWII when planes were shot down.

However in the jetliner era, there were no Qantas fatalities at the time the movie was made. Even in 2010 when an engine exploded on an Airbus A380, the captain managed to get the plane down without crashing or losing life.

This maintained the no loss of life record plus Qantas had also never "lost a hull" (No permanent damage to plane).

Answer: Australia to London non-stop

Internationally, Australia has been regarded by Europeans and American has been a long way from anywhere. While we think nothing of a 15-hour flight to the west coat of the USA or a 30-hour trip to Europe, we are pleased when we only have to travel eight hours to Singapore or 10 hours to Japan. However it is not so much the travelling time on planes (as after all there is almost unlimited entertainment for those of us that do not sleep on planes) but it is the time a stopover takes for refuel or plane change at a hub. This adds two hours minimum to any flight. So when Qantas announced it was going to fly non-stop to London from Australia, there was a collective sharp intake of breath. In March 2018, a Qantas Dreamliner left Perth at 7pm on a Saturday night and landed 17 hours later in London. Perth is the most westerly international hub in Australia, but it was still Australia to the UK in one hop. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was on the first flight, and was quoted as saying "The original Kangaroo Route from Australia to London was named for the seven stops it made over four days back in 1947. Now we can do it in a single leap."

Kangaroos and Qantas. Uniquely Australian. I'm proud to be one.