The “golden age” of travel was actually terrible

Everyone loves the idea of travelling in the 50s, the so called “golden age” of travel. But the reality was far different and a lot more dangerous.

Imagine you’re half way into your flight to London. The plane lands, the aircraft door swings open, and the intense smells of India fill the plane. You look out the window and see lights from the fires still burning at the shanties overlooking the airport.

So why do people love the idea of old fashioned travel? After all, it was a lot of time in the sky. 

Is this a case of rose coloured travel glasses? Let’s go right back to 1947, when Qantas flew the kangaroo route all the way from Australia to London.

Today the flying kangaroo is flying direct from Australia’s mainland to London with no stops.

But there was a time, not so long ago, when it took 7 stops to kangaroo hop to London.

And it was a huge deal to travel, and also hard for Qantas to pull it off.

After all, landing in some of these countries was pretty complicated at the time.

So let’s take a bite of our grapefruit and pineapple cocktail – the food they served on board at the time, and go back in history.

Qantas was flying to London for the Second World War, sort of. They had a code sharing agreement from Brisbane to Singapore as early as 1935, using the de Havilland D.H.86 Express, which could seat just 10 passengers.

When the plane landed in Singapore, passengers connected to a Qantas partner, Imperial airways, which took them on to London.

But it wasn’t a 15 hour flight like it is today. It was 12 and a half days.

By 1938, Qantas had taken up more of that journey itself, and by 1947 there were as many as 6 weekly flights between Sydney and England.

The fastest route was a pacy 78 hours

And then the Kangaroo Route was born. Qantas used the Lockheed Constellations, with ten crew on board, including three pilots, one navigator, one radio operator, two flight engineers and three cabin crew.

Between them, they looked after just 29 passengers. Enough to make today’s airline accountants weep.

And if you were one of the lucky few to get a seat on board, you were pretty wealthy. The flight cost from Sydney to London was around $40,000.

But for that price, you got to see the world, literally.

Starting in Darwin, on the northern tip of the Australian island, the flight would take off bound for Singapore, then on to Calcutta, before another stop in Karachi, Cairo, Castel Benito and then Rome.

Over the following decade, Qantas was pretty experimental. Adding cities like Frankfurt, Zurich, Rome, Athens and Colombo, as other cities dropped off.

Flying to London was the experience.

Passengers loved it, and before long, competitors came for the Qantas golden goose.

BOAC was running four Britannias a week both ways, Air India flew the Super Constellation between Sydney and London, and KLM ran a super constellation between Sydney and Amsterdam.

Then came the jet age! In 1959, Qantas turned to Boeing to build an aircraft that could swoop it past the competition. And Boeing delivered, with the 707.

By now, Qantas was incorporating the Kangaroo Route into an around the world run.

With flights from Australia to the US and then on to London, in what became known as the Southern Cross route.

These were extraordinary times, and so exciting for passengers and those working in the airline industry.

By the 1970s, the 747 had changed the landscape once again. The queen of the skies could fly faster, and longer.

And with it, drastic changes to the kangaroo route.

As the planes got bigger, the routes got smaller, and the stops to places like Bombay were no longer necessary.

Airlines changed their marketing from an adventure, to speed and efficiency.

Pretty soon there was just one stop, usually in Singapore, with its air bridges and air conditioning. Replacing the local smells and sights.

Now there are heaps of airlines flying the route, from Singapore to Emirate, Etihad, Thai and British airways.

The aircraft are more sophisticated, and depending on the wind, that flight to London is now 21 hours, rather than 12 and a half days.

And pretty soon, the kangaroo route wont hop down anywhere at all, flying direct from mainland Australia to London or New York direct.

But take a minute to think back to that era when travelling was an opportunity to see the world, to learn about new cultures.

But for those of us who grew up only in the jet age, it’s nice to imagine what it was like.