Increasing the fleet - for your viewing pleasure

OVER the past four months a crew of mostly retired Qantas engineers have been busily working behind the scenes to restore the first jet aircraft ever registered in Australia in preparation for its landing in Longreach.

Finally their work can be recognised with the announcement that Qantas Foundation Memorial (QFM) has received $1 million from the Australian Government to help restore the Boeing 707 to flying standards.

"This effort is probably the most advanced and difficult technological project ever undertaken by a group of volunteers. We are very proud of our 707 team," QFM chairman Captain Warwick Tainton said.

Stationed at Southend Atlantic in the UK, it is hoped the aircraft will fly across the Atlantic to the US and onto Sydney, re-enacting its first flight in 1959.

The aircraft will then continue onto Longreach to become a permanent part of the Qantas Outback Founders Museum (QFOM) display.

QFOM manager Colin Westwood said the museum had intended to increase the number of aircraft for some time and the 707 was just the beginning.

"We have always been looking to expand the number of planes in our display fleet and the 707 is part of the board’s vision for the future," Mr Westwood said.

"We would like to be able to lease part of the current airport and use it to create an ‘air park’ which would have at least 13 of the aircraft recognised as important developments of Qantas’ history.
"We already have a replica of the earliest aircraft with our Avro504K and we have the last with the 747.
"It’s now a case of filling in the gaps with all the other aircraft like the Sunderland Flying Boat, a Lockheed Electra and obviously the 707, the first jet powered plane to fly outside the United States."

The 707 was originally rolled out as the City of Canberra and registered to Qantas Empire Airways Ltd in 1959 as the first ever jet aeroplane on the Australian Civil Aviation Authority Register.

In June that year the aircraft was renamed the City of Melbourne before departing on its maiden commercial flight to San Francisco and New York. Before being decommissioned in 1967, the 707 was the first plane to fly many of the newly developed Asian routes.

It is expected that the 707 will touch down in Longreach in mid November.