Originally Posted by
Asturias56
First ever Darwin London Service..............
In 1935, air travel from Brisbane Australia to London was introduced by Qantas in partnership with Imperial Airways via a series of flights which took over 12 days, it had up to 31 stopovers including Darwin, Singapore, Rangoon, Karachi, Cairo, Brindisi, Paris. At 20,535 km and taking up to 12 day's it was by far the longest air service in the world at the time.
Qantas flew from Brisbane to Singapore to connect with the Imperial Airways flying boat flight to London.
In 1947 when Qantas introduced the Kangaroo route from Sydney to London the journey took four days and included stops in Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo and Tripoli. The journey included two overnight stays.
In the 1950's Qantas used the Lockheed Constellation on the Kangaroo route.
In 1959 Qantas introduced the Boeing 707 on the Kangaroo route ceasing the Tripoli call and the overnight stays. Fastest journey time from Sydney to London was 34 HR 30 min with eight stops.
In 1971 Qantas introduced the Boeing 747 between Sydney and London and the Darwin call was illuminated.
BOAC also stopped at Darwin on it's Kangaroo route from 1955 with a Lockheed Constellation LHR, ZRH, BEY, KHI, CCU, SIN, JKT, DRW, SYD
Between June 1964 and October 1964 BOAC introduced Comet 4 service between London and Sydney.
From October 1964 BOAC introduced the Boeing 707 between London and Sydney.
LHR, FRA, BEY, KHI, CCU, SIN, DRW, SYD.
In 1971 BOAC introduced the Boeing 747 on the Kangaroo route illuminating Darwin.
As was often the case with the Kangaroo route, both BOAC and Qantas often swapped and changed and altered the destinations between London and Sydney.
So Darwin has previously served from London in the past and for quite a few years 🤗