"Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen" (distraxi)
04/30/2020 at 16:45 • Filed to: Planelopnik
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"Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen" (distraxi)
04/30/2020 at 16:45 • Filed to: Planelopnik | 4
| 2 |
80 years ago today, Tasman Empire Airlines (now known as Air New Zealand) flew its first flight, taking 9 passengers from Auckland to Sydney in Short Empire flying boat ZK-AMA (seen below).
As an overseas (literally) airline serving a number of small destinations, TEAL initially purely flew flying boats. Although they later bought land based aircraft (DC6s, DC8s, and Electras), they were the world’s last longhaul flying boat operator, with the glamorous trans-
Polynesia
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surviving into the 1960s.
TEAL was renamed Air New Z ea la nd in 1965 after being nationalised in 1961. In the 1970s they subsumed government owned internal carrier NAC ( National Airways Corporation) , and in the 90s took over troubled Australian carrier Ansett - who they failed to save: Ansett went bust a few years later . In an intere sting co-incidence, Ansett had been the last operator of big flying boats in this part of the world, operating a Short Sandringham on the 500 mile Sydney to Lord Howe I sl and route until 1974.
Air New Zealand had planned a big PR push to celebrate its 80th, but in current circumstances (they had a day last week where they had only 175 bookings across their entire network) they’re
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ttyymmnn
> Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
04/30/2020 at 17:03 |
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Those Short Empires were awesome.
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Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen
> ttyymmnn
04/30/2020 at 17:25 |
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Weren’t they though. I love the parrot beak.
I’ve never seen one - in fact I’m not sure if any survive - but my local a v iation museum has its military twin the Sunderland, along with TEAL’s last flying boat, a Solent . Up close, they’re an amazing combination of grace and brute force: y ou really get a feel for what a beating water landings must involve when you see how heavily they’re built co mpared to a similar-era landbased pl ane.