Great Question On The Chase

naomi24 | 18:58 Wed 23rd Apr 2025 | ChatterBank

13 Answers

The first Qantas flight from Brisbane to London took how long?

Answer: 12 days..... but they didn't tell us the route the flight took. Can anyone hazard a guess?

Fao Naomi

A Sweat Stained Sun Hat

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ToraToraTora

Well if I had to guess I'd say it probably hopped across the far and middle east with mulitiple stops to Europe etc. Probably something like this Bribane, Perth, singapore, Bombay, Tehran, Instanbul, Rome, London.

naomi24

Question Author

More stops than that.

ToraToraTora

ok so I'm guessing it was probably in the 30s, relatively small plane with not many passengers < 12??

naomi24

Question Author

1935. I don't know the answer. I'm hoping someone else might.

ToraToraTora

Found this it's called "the Kangaroo route" ....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_Route

New Judge

Eastbound passengers from London would first fly from Croydon to Paris, take an overnight train to Brindisi, and fly onward with stops at Athens, Alexandria (overnight), Gaza, Baghdad (overnight), Basra, Kuwait, Bahrain, Sharjah (overnight), Gwadar, Karachi, Jodhpur (overnight), Delhi, Cawnpore, Allahabad, Calcutta (overnight), Akyab, Rangoon, Bangkok (overnight), Alor Star, Singapore (overnight), Batavia, Sourabaya, Rambang (overnight), Koepang, Darwin (overnight), Longreach (overnight), and Charleville.

The single fare in 1935 was £195.

The aircraft used was the De Havilland 86:

https://www.dhmothclub.co.uk/representative-aircraft-types/dh86-express/

This had ten seats, a cruising speed of about 140mph and had a time to climb rate to 10,000 feet in about fifteen minutes.

For comparison, a Boeing 737 reaches its initial cruising altitude of 36,000 feet in less than that and a BAC Lightning interceptor (one of which I was lucky enough and thrilled to fly in) reached 40,000 feet in less than 2 minutes from brakes off.

sandyRoe

What would the equivalent of £195 be today?

ToraToraTora

about 9k

https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1935

THECORBYLOON

You used a figure of £100 TORATORATORA but using £195 shows it is worth £17,722 to-oday.

The Bank of England shows it would be worth £11,813.05 so take your pick.

jno

actual price of a Sydney-London flight in first class these days is £9000+ which is probably broadly the same considering the hotel stops it included. Though they're planning to do it non-stop in a couple of years.

New Judge

"...so take your pick."

And there's even more to choose from. The Wiki article says this:

"...for a single fare £195 (equivalent to $42,700 in 2022)."

That sounds a bit out of line but the pound bought almost five US dollars in 1935,, so probably not.

This topic is interesting as it shows the rate of progress in civil aviation. The trip in 1935 was obviously an adventure which could be afforded by only the very rich. Now UK to Australia flights are within the reach of most people.

As well as that, the time taken for the trip has tumbled from 12 days to around 24 hours or even less and the journey from London to Brisbane can be achieved with just one stop instead of around 30 in 1935.

Qantas provide a daily non-stop flight from Heathrow to Perth, their Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" aircraft taking 17 hours for the trip of almost 9,000 miles. As above, there are plans for more non-stop flights to Australia in the near future.

Space travel demonstrated even more remarkable progress. There was no manned spaceflight before April 1961 but men walked on the moon in July 1969. But that's another story!