At the ‘Timetable List’ web site is a small map of the 1930s routes of an airline that began with a long name but soon became abbreviated to its initials, Q.A.N.T.A.S. Just like many airlines today Qantas Empire Airways Ltd., as it was then called, showed their routes (as solid lines) and those of partner airlines (as dashed lines). It excludes the Americas but covers Africa, Europe and Asia.

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The year 1938 was a special period for Qantas history as it changed some of the dashed lines into solid ones. One Saturday afternoon the airline packed up its headquarters operations into two flying boats and relocated from Brisbane, Queensland to Sydney, New South Wales. It was the second HQ relocation for Qantas, having started out in Longreach in the Queensland outback before moving to the state capital of Brisbane. Rose Bay, Sydney became the starting point of the Sydney to Southampton run inaugurated on July 5 of that year.

The airline had invested several years earlier in the Short C Class ‘Empire’ flying boats, modernising the carrier’s fleet from the much-troubled De Havilland Express (D.H.86), a four-engined biplane which serviced, among other locations, on the Sydney to Singapore mail run. While Qantas records it operated the Express safely, there were at least three operating accidents in Australia with this older aircraft incurred by Holyman Airways, a precursor of the now-defunct Ansett Australia.

The arrival of the Short flying boat was a game changer in carrying capacity, passenger amenities and international capabilities for Qantas. The privileged few who made the Sydney to London run had a trip which was more like a Grand Tour; 10 days of flying the world at low altitudes, spending each night in a hotel.

Yet within a year or so, the horizon for civil aviation changed completely. The commencement of World War II resulted in the Shorts continuing in service to Singapore until it fell in 1942. In these war years, as the Qantas web sites records, their staff showed considerable bravery while making evacuation flights and other movements to and from the front line. Of the 10 Shorts originally delivered, three were destroyed by enemy action and two others lost in accidents.

The airline then acquired PBY Catalina flying boats to operate the now legendary ‘Double Sunrise’ non-stop clandestine flights between Western Australia and Sri Lanka (and later India) to re-establish the southern hemisphere part of the London to Sydney mail link that had been broken with the fall of Singapore. This flight still holds the record for the longest scheduled civil aviation flight segment, taking between 27 and 33 hours.

But for the comparatively peaceful period of 1938 there is a wonderful package in the Flightsim library by Bruce Kennewell (eams1938.zip) providing scenery and background information for the Empire Air Mail Scheme London to Sydney route, with refuelling points and stopovers. I used it in FS2004 with Jens B. Kristensen’s Short Hythe (hythe_v10.zip). There is a Kristensen ‘Empire’ Flying Boat for FS2004 (empire_v30.zip) but I found a jittering problem with it that had also been encountered by others (see FS2004 Forum thread - JBK Short Empire (latest release) shaking violently). However, I found in FSX the counterpart (empire_v30x.zip) had no jittering problem.

In any event, you have available from the library a number of files that give the potential to simulate a very special flight from the year before World War II began, either as segments or a long-haul journey. If you are not bothered by historical accuracy and want to try it in a more modern aircraft and panel, why not use the Dornier Seastar featured recently on Flightsim? It has a slightly higher cruise speed than the Empire and about 50% greater range, even if it misses having a promenade deck, a putting green and a dining table.

See my other Flightsim blog entries by simply by clicking on the Aviation History & Flight Simulation link below.

Allan Jones

allanj12@gmail.com

http://moonscourse.blogspot.ca/