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Inside the Archive #15 | The Boeing 777
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When Qantas farewelled its final 747, mid-pandemic, the airline invited former crew and the country’s media to one of its hangars in Sydney to toast it off, before the aircraft traced a giant kangaroo in the sky. When the small but mighty 717 bowed out late last year, social media influencers were invited onto the final commercial flight, and an airframe was donated to a new academy to train the next generation of engineers. But when Virgin’s 777s finally ended their storied service in Australian aviation five years ago, there was, well, nothing.
Of course, the lack of a funeral was partly because the carrier plunged into administration during the pandemic, and its wide-bodies were declared surplus to requirements when new owners took the keys. But it’s also true that the aircraft failed to capture the public’s imagination. To the untrained eye, the 777 was never the giant leap forward in technology or functionality that could be boasted by, say, the 747 or Super Constellation or even the more recent lightweight and long-range Dreamliner.
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