Trans-Pacific Flight

[jwh]

Included in my Australian National Airways memorabilia collection is this ANA passenger list from May 1947 for the Vancouver-Melbourne trans Pacific service under contract to BCPA. It may look like a normal passenger list until you see that two of the passengers are Viscount Knollys and Whitney Willard Straight. At the time Knollys was Chairman of BOAC and Straight was head of BEA and became head of BOAC later that year.

They would have been traveling to Sydney to attend a QANTAS Board meeting in Sydney on May 26 to finalise code sharing on the Kangaroo Route. QANTAS was to use their new Constellations and BOAC, Lancastrians and Hythes. One way fare was 220 Pounds, a great deal of money in those days. The Lancastrians were mainly used for freight and mail rather than passengers.

It is interesting that their are nine crew and only nineteen passengers. The Flight Commander Peter Gibbes was a legend in Australia. He was the youngest DC-2 Captain in the world in 1938, RAAF pilot in WW2 being awarded the DFC and finished his career in the early 70s as a 727 Captain with Ansett-ANA.









They were certainly long flights back then but at least you didn't have the passenger in front of almost in your lap.

John

[darrenvox]

wow

[Tom/CalClassic]

Nice piece of history with a great back story, thanks.

[chris_c]

Only one passenger from Vancouver! Hardly seems worth it.

Chris

[jwh]

Hi Chris
Yes, it would seem that she had the whole aircraft to herself.

And I wonder what Knollys and Straight were doing in the US. Perhaps someone else in this Forum may have some information on this.

John

[Jorge]

Jon,

Just a guess, but wasn't BOAC trying like crazy to get US built airplanes after the war? I think I read somewhere that the British were in love with the Connie and were trying to get more of them. If so, maybe the count was trying to secure some maintenance contracts with PAA at SFO since that was the jump off point for trans-pacific flights?

Then again, India and Pakistan were just months away from becoming a dominion and gaining a level of independence they never had. Things were not too calm in that area during that time either. This flight (22 May 1947 from what it says on the first image) was less than three months before dominion rule in August, and less than a year before Mahatma Ghandi was killed in January 1948. Maybe the count and the British government thought it wiser to head west instead of east to get to Australia?

Jorge
Miami, FL

[Tom/CalClassic]

Or perhaps they were in negotiations with Lockheed in Burbank?

[Erik]

Three days after the Sydney meeting, the BOAC party was in New Zealand according to these photographic records at the National Library of New Zealand. I did not research why but it must have been quite the business trip for these gentlemen.

Erik

[jwh]

Going by the pics on the NZ Library site it appears that Knollys and Straight flew to Auckland in a BOAC Lancastrian. They must have really noticed the difference in comfort and noise between that aircraft and the DC-4 in which they did the trans Pacific flight, even considering that the DC-4 was also unpressurised.

You are quite correct Erik about it being been quite a trip for them when you look at the miles they covered.

[jwh]

As you can see from this paperwork Peter Gibbes and his crew left the aircraft at Honolulu and a fresh crew skippered by Captain John Presgrave took over for the flight to Canton Island and Nadi. Then another crew would have continued on to Sydney.

This is the "Crossing the Equator" certificate given to passenger Mrs. A. Berge whose name you can see on the Passenger List above. Another wonderful ritual that is now long passed.