Qantas celebrates centenary with release of 'very rare' Empire flying boat film reel
The almost-forgotten travel era of the Qantas Empire flying boats has been brought back to life with the discovery of a never-before-released film reel dating back to the 1930s.
The nine-minute colour film was uncovered inside a small tin at a Qantas storage base in Sydney, providing a detailed look at the once-popular water-based aircraft of a bygone era.
The unique footage has been digitised and released by Qantas in celebration of its centenary this week.
It captures two of the Short Empire flying boats on a journey from Darwin to Singapore via the former Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia).
It also includes footage of the planes stopping in Surabaya, Batavia (now Jakarta) and Singapore in mid-1939, not long before war swept through the Asia Pacific.
Phil Vabre from the Civil Aviation Historical Society said the discovery of the colour footage was "very rare".
"I've only seen one other lot of colour footage of the Empire flying boats from that period.
"It's very, very rare indeed and it's very special to be able to see it."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-...-film/12881604