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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 1943.PDF
I YEARS OF \ cF& CUTTA HONCil Q.&A's present network (solid lines) is shown here together with (dotted) the freighter service operated in conjunction with B.O.A.C. ON a hot summer afternoon a little over 30 years agoa chance meeting between two Australians—one ofwhom had enlisted the help of the other to extract a car from the sandy bed of the Cloncurry River in the arid stretches of Western Queensland—led to the birth of an enterprise which was later to become one of the world's foremost airlines—the Qantas Empire Airways. The car owner was a local squatter, Mr. (now Sir) Fergus McMaster, and his new acquaintance was an ex-R.F.C. lieutenant, P. J. McGinnis, who in company with Lt Hudson Fysh had been commissioned by die Federal Government to survey an air route between Longreach and Darwin. Though intended primarily for the benefit of contestants in the then forthcoming England-Australia Air Race (not the 1934 event, but the contest of 1919, won by Capt. Ross Smith and LL Keith Smith), the survey, made from a battered Ford car, left Hudson Fysh and McGinnis con- vinced that only aircraft could satisfactorily solve the trans- port problems of the "outback." It was while waiting for the Smiths' Vickers Vimy to fly through that McGinnis met Fergus McMaster. So impressed was the latter with the young man's enthusiastic ideas of starting an inland airline that he agreed to interest other local residents in the scheme. Thus it was that on November 16th, 1920, " Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services, Ltd.," came into being, with Fergus McMaster as chairman. To-day, on the occasion of its 30th anniversary, Qantas has just cause to be proud of its fine record of progress and achievement. The company's first activities included joy-riding, general air-taxi work in Queensland, and the establishment of a link between Longreach and Winton: a distance of 117 miles which took four days by the circuitous rail route and five hours by car—when the road was not impassable. It was also intended to inaugurate services Unking Charleville, Blackall, Longreach, Winton and Cloncurry and, later, to extend through to Sydney or Brisbane and Darwin. Unlike most airlines, which normally have their begin- nings in capital cities with subsequent links to the less- populated districts, Qantas started in the country and worked towards the cities. The first two aircraft acquired —vintage biplanes of World War I—were a BE-2E and an Avro 504, the latter powered by a 100 h.p. water-cooled Sunbeam Dyak engine. At three guineas a seat joy-riding proved popular and during the first two years 871 pas- sengers experienced without incident the sensations of flying for the first time. Some 79 taxi-flights included a low-altitude turkey-shooting expedition on which the pas- senger, armed with a shotgun, found his targets among unsuspecting turkeys busy feeding in the long grass. The early activities of Qantas were anything but profit- able and had it not been for the generosity of shareholders, several of whom preferred to consider their contributions as donations rather than as investments, the company would have been forced to close down. Fergus McMaster led negotiations to obtain a subsidy and, this objective being achieved, the company began its first regular service on November 2nd, 1922. This was between Charleville and Cloncurry, a distance of 577 miles, flown with a night stop at Longreach (the company's head office) to avoid the gruelling heat of day. The aircraft used was an Armstrong-Whitworth FJC8, with a payload of 400 lb; a government subsidy of 4s per mile was paid for its operation. McGinnis flew the aircraft on the first stage to Longreach and Hudson Fysh completed the second day's run. The first passenger to be carried was the noted Australian pioneer Alexander Kennedy, then 87 years of age and, incidentally, one of the first directors of Qantas. He flew on the second day from Longreach to Cloncurry over country which he had first crossed by bullock cart 53 years 1921 : Avro 504. 1921 : B.E. 2E. 1922 : Avro triplane-
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