Home Airlines & Airliners Qantas Retro Roo II takes flight

Qantas Retro Roo II takes flight

by Matt Falcus

Qantas-Retro-Roo-II

Qantas has revealed its new Retro Roo II aircraft, which harks back to its classic early 1960s livery.

Boeing 737-800 VH-VXQ, which was painted in Townsville, wears the livery to celebrate the airline’s 95th anniversary.

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The Retro Roo livery originally appeared on the airline’s first Boeing 707 jetliners from 1959-1961. The 707 represented a step-change in aviation and Qantas was the first carrier outside the United States to operate the jet. In 1959, Qantas used it to become the first airline to operate regular passenger jet services across the Pacific Ocean, connecting Sydney and San Francisco.
Qantas was also the first airline to offer a round-the-world jet service with the 707. The flying time was 70 hours compared to 127 hours with the Super Constellation aircraft that the 707 replaced. Today a Qantas flight from Sydney to London stops just once, in Dubai, and takes 21 flying hours.

Welcoming the freshly-painted Qantas retro jet into a hangar with more than 300 employees, Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce described the vintage livery as a flying tribute to the airline’s history of innovation.

“As we celebrate our 95th birthday today, I hope this livery inspires a sense of pride in what our national airline has achieved during all those years of taking Australians around the world and bringing them safely home again,” said Mr Joyce.

“A large part of the national pride people feel towards the flying kangaroo comes from the fact it has been responsible for so many innovations in global aviation.”

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