Farewell Flight A Tribute To Grand Jets Of 1950s

Illawarra Mercury

Friday June 8, 2007

By PAUL McINERNEY

WITH its landing wheels just metres above the Albion Park runway yesterday, one Australian aviation icon paid majestic tribute to another.

Dozens of people in and around the airport braved wet and cold weather conditions for up to an hour to catch a glimpse of the Boeing 707, City of Canberra, as she came out of rain clouds to make two low-level passes.

Resplendent in 1959 Qantas livery, the City of Canberra was the first commercial jet registered in Australia, the first to be sold outside the United States, and is probably the oldest 707 in the world still flying.

Yesterday's low-level spectacular was a farewell salute to the Illawarra and an opportunity to honour the former 1955 Qantas Super Constellation, fondly known as Connie, that the jet replaced in the Qantas fleet more than 40 years ago.

Ironically, Connie has the freedom of Australian skies thanks to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS), now based at Illawarra Regional Airport.

But not the City of Canberra.

She will be flown to Qantas' museum at Longreach in Central Queensland on Sunday and permanently grounded because of a bizarre condition of sale imposed by the Saudi royal family, the jet's former owners, that it may be used only as a static display.

"It's a real shame after all the work and effort from the Qantas Founders Museum to get her back in the air again," HARS president and chief pilot Bob De La Hunty said as he watched the fly-past.

"The Boeing 707 is a magnificent aircraft and I can still remember the day when my father took me to Sydney airport in 1958 to watch its arrival in Australia for the first time," he said.

After ushering in Australia's jet age and a decade of service on some of the world's longest air routes, the City of Canberra was sold off overseas and ended up as a VIP aircraft in Saudi Arabia.

Qantas museum experts found the jet languishing in an aviation graveyard in southern England waiting to be turned into scrap metal.

With the help of a $1 million Commonwealth grant, the museum negotiated the sale and refurbishment of the aircraft that was flown finally to Sydney earlier this year.

Yesterday's farewell flight included an extended flyover of Canberra - the city whose name she still proudly bears.