The Jet Age: London To Sydney In 33 Hours

The biggest advances came in the 1960s with the arrival of the VC10 and Boeing 707 aircraft.

Qantas began operating Boeing 707 jets from London via San Francisco in 1959.
BOAC Australia via New York, San Francisco, Honolulu and Fiji Advertisement 1967In 1967, BOAC introduced its own Pacific route to Australia via New York, San Francisco, Honolulu, and Fiji. The trip took 33 hours.

The inaugural flight was filmed, and a video and transcript is below:
Now in great ships of the sky, British captains and their crews wing their way half around the world to Australia in 33 hours, almost 13,000 miles.

The days of salt pork and biscuits are in the past. Now it’s luxury. On board BOAC’s inaugural Pacific service flight to Sydney caviar is the only reminder of sea 40,000 feet below. Take off time in London was noon. Now they’re just finishing after lunch coffee high in the Manhattan skyline.

New York they say takes your breath away and loosens your purse strings. No time for shopping though this time. For soon, it’s onward again, to race the sun across the United States to San Francisco. Not sail now, but four Rolls Royce engines, thrusting the first flight by a British airline along the South Trans Pacific route.

San Francisco, city by the Pacific. City of cable cars, hills and links with the past. America’s doorway to the orient, the Golden Gate Bridge. By local time, it’s only seven hours since leaving London. But this is 6,000 miles from home with a tangy Pacific Air and Frisco’s famous seafood.

New York’s far behind. Soon this place will be too, because ahead and waiting is the magic of Honolulu. From San Francisco onward again. Calling Honolulu. Calling Honolulu. And what a pleasant answer. Now the crew of modern clipper changeover, They can enjoy a well earned rest. People like them helped BOAC to announce an all time record profit of £23 million. Air fares are coming down, making it possible for more and more people to come to places as far away as this.

It’s hard to leave a place like Honolulu. When the next stop’s Fiji, it makes it easier.

This take off’s different flying straight into tomorrow across the dateline. Every one of the 152 passengers get a momento of the occasion.

Communications Fiji style. This is how the message of the flight gets around the island. The nonstop before the continent of Australia. It’s been an easy journey by the standards of today, almost half way around the world in hours. Back in the days of the clipper ships, they’d still be finding an angry ocean, only a fraction of the way out from home port. Yet today, there is a man, Sir Francis Chichester battling through these same elements coming home on his great adventure.

In air travel, a new chapter is born by a British airline. 33 hours from London to Sydney. Yes, the world is truly becoming a smaller place. A good thing for all nations.