The Mighty 747: Australia's Queen of the Skies

Jim Eames

nën 2022 · Allen & Unwin

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The world's most iconic commercial aircraft, the Boeing 747, and its Australian story.

'We have decided we must have the 747.' - Bert Ritchie, Qantas Chief Executive, 1967

From its first Qantas flight in 1971, the Boeing 747 flew millions of people to Australia, overseas for work, back to their homelands, on holiday and out of danger. For most Australians, the 747 was their first experience of international travel. And now, history's most iconic commercial aircraft is scheduled to be decommissioned around the world.

In this jet-set nostalgia journey, Jim Eames - bestselling author of The Flying Kangaroo and Courage in the Skies - tells us how the 747, a watershed in aviation technology, dramatically changed air travel, and recounts the high points of its life at Qantas, including the uplift out of Darwin after Cyclone Tracy, the return of the Diggers to Gallipoli and the evacuation of Australians from Wuhan. We discover how the 747 came in all shapes and sizes, eventually becoming the 747-400, which set a world distance record from London to Sydney. We also find out about the near misses and how close we have come to disaster on several occasions. And finally, we remember the 747's farewell to Australia, when it departed our skies for the last time in 2020.

The Mighty 747 is the jumbo's Australian story, and is woven with the humour and nostalgia of the people at Qantas who sold the 747 to Australia and who made it work on the ground and in the air.

'Jim Eames is a legend in the industry . . . It's hard to imagine anyone better placed to chart the history and insider stories of the jumbo jet . . . there's social history, wry anecdotes and nostalgia aplenty.' - Weekend Australian

'Jim Eames takes us on the journey of the Boeing 747, the plane that dominated international travel. A former leader in the airline that bet its (and Australia's) future on the 747s, Jim guides us through the jet's remarkable design, construction and operations that put Australia on the world's stage. The Mighty 747 is essential reading for every person who has an interest in aviation, and Jim's knowledge, experience and insights put him in the captain's seat to explain how Boeing, the 747 and Qantas changed the world.' - Captain Richard de Crespigny AM, Pilot-in-Command and author of QF32

'Terrific' Philip Clark, ABC Nightlife

'A love story about this wonderful plane and the impact it had on so many people's lives . . . some wonderful memories in here and some great stories as well.' - 2GB

'an insightful and contemporary view . . . Some stories are humorous and all are informative, each adding a piece to a half-century puzzle . . . it is about the people that made the aircraft mighty and therein lies the real soul of Australia's "Queen of the Skies".' - Airline Ratings

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Jim Eames has been involved with airlines since he began work as an aviation writer in the 1960s. He has been a ministerial press secretary and aviation adviser to governments and a senior executive with Qantas. He is the author of nine books including Taking to the Skies: Daredevils, heroes and hijackers, Australian flying stories from the Catalina to the Jumbo, The Flying Kangaroo: Great untold stories of Qantas . . . the heroic, the hilarious and the sometimes plain strange and Courage in the Skies: The untold story of Qantas, its brave men and women and their extraordinary role in World War II.