Qantas Airways Ltd’s latest Boeing 747 drew a kangaroo tail in the sky off the coast of Australia.
Qantas Airways Ltd’s latest Boeing 747 drew a kangaroo tail in the skies off the coast of Australia as it embarked on its last flight to retirement in the Mojave Desert on Wednesday, ending the nearly half-century service of the model at the carrier.
Owen Zupp, one of six pilots aboard the final flight, brought forward several months due to the coronavirus pandemic, said he would reflect once his team delivers the plane safely to the United States .
“Once that is done, I think it will be a memory we can look back on with great pride,” Zupp told Reuters. “This is important not only for Qantas’ history but also for aviation.”
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, who signed the plane before it took off from Sydney Airport, said the model has helped make international travel more affordable for Australians.
Farewell, #QueenoftheskiesToday, the last 747 in our fleet, VH-OEJ left Australia for the last time – adding a special roo-te display in the United States ????# 747farewellpic.twitter.com/KXzNKhxFOH
– Qantas (@Qantas) July 22, 2020
“He overcame the tyranny of distance which was and remained a problem for Australia,” he said during a rally in a hangar for the dispatch.
Ironically, the reason for the plane’s early departure was also the reason for the small crowd of 150 people. Thousands of people were expected to attend a farewell originally scheduled for the end of the year.
The Qantas 747s have carried over 250 million people in nearly half a century of service, including Queen Elizabeth II and all Australian Olympic teams since 1984. Qantas was once the only airline in the world with a fleet of 747.
The four-engine plane with a less favorable economy than the next-gen 787s and Airbus SE A350s had fallen out of favor even before the coronavirus pandemic, but Qantas, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and KLM stepped up retirement plans in due to the lack of demand for international travel.
Qantas has blocked most international flights at least until July 2021 due to Australian government travel restrictions.
Boeing, which in recent years made the latest version of the 747 primarily as a freighter, and its suppliers signaled the end of the plane when they set the final number of parts it would need for the program ago. at least a year.
According to aeronautical data provider Cirium, there are only 30,747 passenger planes in service worldwide and 132 in stock, with freighters accounting for 93% of the type still in flight.
Joyce said Qantas had sold five of its 747s to General Electric Co. The last plane will deliver cargo cargo to Los Angeles before flying to the Mojave.
Vincent Chu, 29, was among a crowd gathered near the airport to watch the plane depart: “I just wanted to give it one last shipment, so to speak.”
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
