Qantas today announced the names of its fleet of 20 A380 aircraft,
honouring pioneers of Australian aviation.
Qantas Chief Executive Officer Designate, Mr Alan Joyce said that today - the airline’s 88th birthday - was a
fitting date to honour men and women who had contributed to the development of aviation in Australia.
“I am delighted that some of our greatest aviation trail blazers and their families have agreed to allow
Qantas to name our A380 fleet in their honour,” he said. “Today, we are bringing aviation’s past together
with its future.”
The full list of people who will have an A380 named after them are:
•
Nancy-Bird Walton – the first woman to fly a commercial aviation service in Australia.
•
Hudson Fysh – one of the founders of Qantas and the airline’s first Managing Director.
•
Paul McGinness – one of the founders of Qantas.
•
Fergus McMaster – one of the founders of Qantas and the first Chairman of the Company.
•
Lawrence Hargrave – inventor of the box kite, linking four of these together in 1894 to fly 16 feet.• Charles Kingsford Smith – Australia’s most famous aviator, who made the first trans-Pacific flight
from the USA to Australia in 1928, and founded Australian National Airways Limited.
• Charles Ulm – Co-pilot, on Kingsford Smith’s record-breaking trans-Pacific flight between the USA
and Australia in 1928 and co-founder of Australian National Airways Limited.
•
Reginald Ansett – Founder of Ansett Airways Pty Ltd.
•
David Warren – Inventor of the Black Box Flight Recorder.
• John and Reginald Duigan – First Australians to design, construct and fly a powered aircraft, in
1910.
•
Phyllis Arnott – First Australian woman to gain a commercial pilot’s license.• Keith McPherson Smith and Ross McPherson Smith – winners of the famous ‘Air Race’ between
London and Australia in 1919.
• Lester Brain – Piloted one of the first Qantas routes in 1925 and ferried the first wartime Catalina
Flying Boat delivered by Qantas Empire Airways in 1941. Later appointed General Manager of
Trans
-Australia Airlines in 1946.• Lores Bonney – First woman to fly solo around Australia in 1932 and the first woman to fly solo from
Australia to England, in 1933.
• Norman Brearley – Founder of Western Australian Airways Limited, which operated Australia’s first
scheduled air service on 5 December 1921.
• P G Taylor – Navigator and co-pilot alongside Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm on many
record-breaking flights between Australia and the United States and England and Australia. Taylor
was awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal in 1937 for one of the most revered acts of bravery in the
history of aviation.
• Scotty Allan – Co-pilot alongside Charles Ulm and P G Taylor on the 1933 record-breaking flight
from England to Australia and later joined Qantas and flew DH86 aircraft on the Brisbane-Singapore
route.
•
John Flynn – Founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
•
Gaby Kennard – First Australian woman to fly solo around the world in 1989.Source Qantas Airways
He who laughs last obviously has'nt heard the bad news.