50 years of jet service

But the 120 to 150-seat Boeing and Douglas jet were too big for Qantas at the time and lacked the performance to handle the critical leg between Nadi and Honolulu on the airline’s Pacific routes.

However Qantas’ hand was forced first by British Airways (BOAC) which ordered 19 Comet 4s in March 1955 and then in October 1955 when Pan Am shook the aviation world and ordered 25 DC-8s and 20 707s for delivery, starting in late 1958.

Qantas’ management mulled over a variety of options including buying an interim type, such as the Britannia, while it waited for the development of more powerful jet engines to meet its operational requirements.

Interestingly it was seriously looking at buying a package of DC-7Cs and DC-8s but the story goes that Don Douglas Jnr, now holding sway at Douglas would not agree to a shortened version for the DC-8.

Boeing however was more innovative and needed to make a mark in the commercial field that Douglas still dominated and offered Qantas a shortened version of the 707, with more powerful engines, for delivery in May 1959.

In fact in late 1959, Douglas has more customers for the DC-8 than Boeing for its 707.

On 6 September 1956 the Australian government announced that Qantas would buy seven Boeing 707-138s worth a total of $28 million.

A Qantas press release at the time said that the 707-138s would cut the flying time on the Kangaroo Route from 48 hours to just 27 hours, a hugely attractive prospect to its passengers.

Between July and September 1959, Qantas became the first foreign operator of the 707 and took delivery of seven aircraft.

Qantas Boeing 707s entered service on the Pacific route on 29 July 1959 operating to San Francisco via Nandi and Honolulu and this was extended to London on 5 September.

On 15 October, 707-138s were introduced on the Kangaroo Route and Qantas became the first airline to circle the world with jets.

While some airlines levied a jet surcharge, Qantas maintained the same fares for both jet and piston-powered aircraft.

The First Class return fare to London at the time was $1,755 and the economy fare was $1,170.

Qantas quickly replaced the original JT3C engines with Pratt and Whitney’s JT3D turbofan engines and Qantas dubbed its jets V-Jets after “vannus”, that Latin for fan.

Between 1959 and 1964, 13 of the Boeing 707-138s were delivered.

Qantas ordered 16 spare Pratt & Whitney JT3C turbojet engines based on its experience with the piston engines of the Constellations, where the airline had to replace an engine every six months.

But with jet engines proved far more reliable and the replacement schedule was pushed out to once every six years.

The more powerful turbofan engines also enabled greater range; Darwin and Jakarta were dropped as stops on many services on the Kangaroo Route, and Fiji was dropped on trans-Pacific routes.

In December 1963, Qantas ordered three of the larger -320C variant –dubbed – 338C for Qantas. In all Qantas took 21 of this model.

Traffic was booming. In 1964, there were six 707 flights a week on the Kangaroo route.

But a trip to London was still a bit of a milk run due to commercial reasons and in 1965, Qantas 707s made up to seven stops from Sydney to London.

Flight QF733 stopped at Jakarta, Singapore, Bangkok, Calcutta, Tehran, Athens and Rome.

At the time, Qantas had 9 weekly flights to London: three of the services made seven stops; two made six stops; two five stops; one four stops; and one – the Sunday afternoon service for business travelers, fly QF 747 – made three stops.

In 1967, the number of services climbed to 11 a week and in 1971 that had jumped to 23 a week.

In December 2006 Qantas’ first 707 and the 29th built originally registered VH-EBA City of Canberra returned to Australia and is now on display at the Qantas Founders Outback Museum at Longreach.