A sad week for Boeing 747 fans has continued with news the captain of a world-record Qantas flight has passed away at the age of 73.
David Massy-Greene captained the Australian carrier’s fist Boeing 747-400 Longreach, VH-OJA, on a non-stop journey from London Heathrow to Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport in August, 1989.
The marathon flight took 20 hours, 9 minutes and 5 seconds and set a new Fédération Aéronautique Internationale distance record and attracted global coverage. Its average speed of 525.4mph (845.6kmh) also set a record.
The City of Canberra was the 12th 747-400 to come off the production line and used specially refined high density fuel in Rolls Royce RB211 engines specifically selected by the engine maker.
The record stood until 2005 when it was a beaten by a Boeing 777-200LR flying from Hong Kong to London over the Pacific and USA in 22 hours and 45 minutes.
Joining Massy-Greene on the flight deck of the City of Canberra were senior captains Ray Heiniger, George Lindeman and Rob Greenop.
The Qantas captain started his career at Qantas as a pilot cadet in 1966 and flew Boeing 707, 747 and 767 aircraft for the airline.
“He retired from Qantas in 1999 and joined Boeing where he spent the next 12 years and worked on the development of the electronic flight bag which is now standard equipment on most airline fleet,’’ Qantas said in a statement to staff. “He was recognised for his foresight and passion for Qantas and the aviation industry in general.’’
Massy-Green was there when VH-OJA was donated to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society and flown to Illawarra Airport, south of Sydney, in March, 2015.
He told the Illawarra Mercury newspaper that the non-stop flight was an important milestone and message to the Australian public.
‘‘Australia has always been very isolated by distance, and we wanted to demonstrate that a non-stop flight was possible,’’ he said. ‘‘In doing so we were able to demonstrate the technical excellence of Qantas.’’
The Qantas captain’s death comes after the man who led the development of the 747, Joe Sutter, died earlier in the week.
