No visitor to the rural Queensland town of Longreach can miss the sight of the iconic Qantas jumbo jet parked right outside the airport. But this historic Boeing 747-200 is just one of many restored aircraft at the Qantas Founders Museum in Longreach, a town where Qantas began doing business in 1922. The Longreach hangar where Qantas first built its own planes back in the 1920s is also now part of the Qantas Founders Museum.
The Qantas museum in Longreach boasts an impressive collection of historic aircraft. In addition to the Boeing 747, the displays include the first Qantas Boeing 707, a Qantas Empire Airways DC3 and a Catalina flying boat.
Last month, a newly-restored Super Constellation also joined the collection. The aircraft, which operated on the Kangaroo Route to Europe from 1947, has been restored and re-painted in its original Qantas livery.
Of course, the Kangaroo Route to Europe involved many more stops back in the 1950s than today’s one-stop Qantas services via Singapore and Perth! This log book entry from the Qantas Founders Museum shows an example of the Super Constellation’s Kangaroo Route from back in 1957:
To put it into perspective, here’s the route…
AFF member samh004 attended the launch of the Super Constellation static display at the Qantas Founders Museum earlier this month. He flew up from Brisbane with QantasLink via Blackall. On arrival into Longreach there was a buzz in town…
I love arriving into Longreach, especially when there’s an event on as there’s a welcome party and usually a free ride to my hotel. Today was no exception. I also found out tonight’s event will feature over 100 guests including local and state ministers.
Check out samh004‘s trip report for highlights from the event, and some useful information about Longreach and the Qantas Founders Museum: Super Constellation Launch (LRE)
Longreach and the Qantas Founders Museum is also the destination of October’s charity Qantas flight to raise money for struggling Australian farmers. This flight is already sold out, but some AFF members managed to secure tickets!
