Retro Roo

The aircraft, 737-838 VH-XZP, wears a paint scheme from the era that many who worked for Qantas and the broader Australian public would consider the airline’s golden age. And its arrival in Australia and entry into service on the Qantas domestic network neatly coincides with the airline rebounding from some of its darkest hours such as its industrial turmoil in 2011 and 2014’s big financial losses and accompanying major job cuts and the “transformation” restructuring program that now sees it on track to post healthy profits once more.

VH-XZP wears the iconic ochre cheat line and flying kangaroo colour scheme worn by Qantas 747-200s and 707-320s (and even two DC-4s used to service Norfolk Island) from 1971 until the livery was progressively replaced from 1984. The scheme was chosen for its particular resonance with Qantas staff and the Australian travelling public, to mark the delivery of the airline’s 75th and last Boeing 737- 800, and to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the flying kangaroo appearing on a Qantas aircraft for the first time.

“I think the choice of this era [livery] is perfect. There’s a lot of people still around who remember it like that, there’s a lot of our staff around who remember it like that,” Qantas Group chief financial officer (and soon to be head of Qantas International) Gareth Evans toldAustralian Aviation on the sidelines of the aircraft’s delivery ceremony in Seattle on November 16.

“So I think it is the representation of the history of the airline in the livery and the future of the airline in the fact that this is new technology, a brand new aircraft, the 75th 737‑800 entering the fleet. ” At the other end of the “retro roo” 737’s delivery flight to Sydney, Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce was on hand to welcome the aircraft into the Qantas fleet.

“When Australians set off to explore the world, they flew with Qantas. And when they began the journey home, it was the Flying Kangaroo they saw at the airport,” Joyce said during the November 19 ceremony at the airline’s Sydney Airport jet base.

“This was the time when Qantas became a truly international brand.

A brand that represented Australia like no other, at a time when Australia itself was opening up to the world. ” It is the power of that brand that the airline is tapping into through its “Feels like home” advertising campaign that features Martha Marlow singing the classic Randy Newman tune.

“The campaign is based on a clear message we got from our customers. When they see the Qantas tail around Australia and all over the world, it feels like home,” Joyce remarked.

“The ads have struck a chord, because they capture an emotion. We hope the sight of this aircraft has a similar effect as it flies across the Qantas domestic network. ” Fitting too for an aircraft that wears a livery synonymous with international travel but will almost exclusively serve on domestic routes, VH-XZP is named after James Strong, the former CEO who is arguably the father of the modern airline. Strong, who died in March 2013, was CEO of TAA and Australian Airlines between 1986 and 1989, and then CEO of Qantas from 1993 to 2001, taking the reins shortly after then domesticonly Australian Airlines was merged into the then internationalonly Qantas in September 1992, and steering the newly-merged company through privatisation.

“James’s genius was to harness the traditions of Qantas, and turn its focus toward the future,” Joyce said.

“He led the merger of Qantas with Australian Airlines. And he led the merged airline through privatisation, setting it up for success in modern aviation. ” Strong was a much-loved and much-respected leader of Qantas.

“Seeing the retro livery is nice, but naming the aircraft after James means even more,” one senior Qantas exec was heard to remark at the arrival ceremony.

Back in Seattle, Evans, meanwhile, described Strong, who would later serve on the Qantas board, as a “great leader”.

Said Evans: “I think [history] is very important. You’ve got to have the balance between the history and the future, every company with a long history needs to remember that history, remember where it has come from and how it has got to where it is today. ” Origins of a retro roo While there has long been informal support within Qantas for a retro paint scheme, the push for an historic aircraft livery gained initial traction in late 2013, explains Scott Collins, Qantas’s retiring manager fleet projects, with the decision to go ahead with a retro design made in July 2014.

“Normally we like to spend 12 months doing something like this, to go through all the iterations of getting renderings done and [discussing] different ideas,[developing] how it will look,” Collins told Australian Aviation about the process of developing a special aircraft livery.

“This [timeframe] was a bit shorter … but we very quickly settled on this particular livery. ” The intent, Collins said, was to as closely as possible replicate the livery introduced on the airline’s first Boeing 747, which was delivered in August 1971.

That livery, including a custom typeface dubbed ‘Cyclone’ had been designed by Harry Rogers, a freelance graphic designer who worked with Qantas for over 30 years from the mid-1950s.

“We tried to keep the livery as close as possible to the original 747 livery,” Collins explained.

“That was really the iconic aeroplane that opened up air travel, it was just such a game changer. So we’ve tried to keep it as genuine as we could to the 747 livery. ” Collins explained the process of adapting the scheme for the 737: “We went back and selected the colours, the red on the tail and the winglets is the same red that was used back in 1971 on the 747 andis slightly different to the standard Qantas red. That same red was used for Qantas titles. ” Similarly the ochre used in the cheatline is the same paint colour spec as originally used.

“We have engineering drawings of the livery of all our aircraft,” Collins said. “So we went back to the archives and looked for the exact specs. And Boeing had the paint samples still on file. They actually went back and got the paint samples, which dated back to the ’70s and ’80s. So they were the genuine original colours. Then we used those colour swatches in the actual paint process to make sure that it would actually come out [correctly], that they mixed the paint correctly. ” The only major variation from the original scheme was painting the aircraft’s lower fuselage light grey, in place of the polished aluminium finish of the original. Due to corrosion prevention considerations Boeing no longer offers airlines the option of a polished aluminium finish.

There are other, smaller, detail changes. For examples the aircraft registration sits above, rather than within, the cheat line due to the APU inlet doors on the aircraft’s right side.

“We’ve also painted the area under the flightdeck on the nose black. That was something that was done on the 707 with that colour scheme, so we’ve adopted that. To us it’s a signature ’70s feature that you don’t see today. ” (While 747-238 VH-EBA was the first aircraft to feature the new colours, delivered to Sydney on August 16 1971, and it was soon followed by sistership VH-EBB, delivered to Melbourne on August 29 1971, the first 707-338 repainted in the ochre scheme was VH-EBU, unveiled in November 1971. ) There are other considerations with a one-off paint scheme. The engine cowls don’t feature the Qantas logo as they do for the rest of the airline’s 737 fleet, while the winglets are painted in the 1970s red. So if either the cowls or the winglets have to be replaced due to damage the aircraft will end up with non matching components which in time will have to be repainted to match the retro scheme. As they are delivered to Boeing by supplier Aviation Partners Boeing already painted, timeframes meant the winglets could only be painted in the correct red but not feature mini flying kangaroos (not that the Qantas 747s and 707s that wore this livery had winglets at any rate).

“That was one of the earliest decisions we had to make – what colour were the winglets,” Collins said.

Finally, the last two windows on either side of the aircraft are plugged and painted light grey. One of those plugs will be removed from either side when the aircraft is fitted with the new slimline lavatory upgrade Qantas has planned, which will allow it to fit its 737-800s with an extra row of seats.

“And the other [window plug], we typically line up the rego with the last window of our liveries. So that was actually the last window there, so we’ve painted it to make [the window line] look a little bit longer than it is as we wanted to get [the rego] as far back as possible to try to get it as close to the original position as possible. ” Collins also spoke highly of Boeing’s role in developing and painting the retro scheme.

“They gave us their best paint hangar, number six at Boeing Field, the same paint hangar that did the Mendoowoorrji, and they were very, very enthused and they did a lot of stuff on their own, they did samples and such.

“So they really know how to do difficult schemes but this one was relatively easy for them. It’s all straight lines. Apart from getting the colours right and the positions, this was relatively easy for them. ” Painting was completed “comfortably” within Boeing’s normal three-day flow window Collins said.

“It was very good, the quality of the paintwork was excellent. It really stands out. ”

We tried to keep the livery as close as possible to the original 747 livery. SCOTT COLLINS

We tried to keep the livery as close as possible to the original 747 livery.

Delivering the retro roo

With just 8 hours 4 minutes and seven cycles in its logbook, VH‑XZP departed Boeing Field, Seattle bound for Sydney on Monday November 17. Taking off shortly after 8am, after special – and quite rare – clearance from Seattle air traffic control to fly past snowcapped 4,329m (14,411ft) high Mount Rainier, to Seattle’s south-east, the 737 set course for Honolulu – a port no stranger to Qantas’s 1970s livery as it was used as a refuelling stop by 707s and 747s flying from Australia to the US – where it would touch down after 5hr 30min flying time.

After a quick ‘gas and go’ refuelling stop in Honolulu the 737 then continued on to Nadi.

For those onboard the Honolulu-Nadi leg was something of a highlight, with the cabin service taking on a distinctly 1970s feel. The three flight attendants onboard – CSM Jasmine McCarthy, Amy Beaston and Peta Delisle – donned authentic 1970s era Qantas flight attendant uniforms (designed by Emilio Pucci) and served a special 1970s inspired menu developed byRockpool Consulting, highlights of which included mushroom vol au vent, lobster thermidor, duck a l’orange or beef wellington, sides such as Waldorf salad and deserts like sherry trifle.

The 6hr 11min Honolulu-Nadi sector also tracked over head Nikumaroro atoll, Kiribati, the presumed site of Amelia Earhardt’s disappearance in July 1937.

After an overnight in Nadi VH‑XZP departed at 8am the following morning (November 19 after crossing the dateline the day before), touching down in Sydney at 10:25am later that morning.

For that Nadi-Sydney leg the Qantas staff and media onboard the delivery flight were joined by two Qantas staff members who had won an internal competition to travel on the last leg of the delivery flight, and their partners, plus special guest 82-year-old John Martin.

Qantas believes Martin is the airline’s biggest fan, and one of its most travelled passengers. Martin has flown 958 flights with Qantas since July 1964, including the first Qantas 747 revenue flight, from Sydney to Melbourne and Singapore in September 1971.

“They’re a relative,” Martin said when asked what Qantas means to him.

Martin and the rest of XZP’s passengers and crew were welcomed off the aircraft in Sydney by Alan Joyce and James Strong’s wife Jeanne-Claude, ahead of an official ceremony that saw Jeanne-Claude unveil a special bow-tie decal under her husband’s name on the aircraft’s nose (James Strong was famous for wearing bow-ties).

Following the welcome ceremony in Sydney, VH-XZP then ferried to Qantas’s Brisbane maintenance base that evening for final pre-service mods ahead of entering scheduled service on Sunday November 22.

That first revenue flight was QF611 from Brisbane to Melbourne, the very first commercial service of what should be a 20-year career with Qantas.

“It is incredible to think that when this aircraft retires in about 20 years time it will have flown about 40,000 hours and 60,000 cycles,” Qantas technical pilot Captain Alex Passerini had said onboard VH-XZP ahead of its arrival into into Sydney.

“We are lucky to be here at the very beginning. ”