MIAMI – Today in Aviation, a Qantas Airways (QF) flying boat service commenced a survey flight from Sydney to Valparaíso via Easter Island in 1951. This marks the airline’s first flight across the South Pacific.
Before pioneering an air route from Sydney to Valparaiso, Chile, with the Catalina Flying Boat ‘Frigate Bird II’, Captain Patrick Gordon “Bill” Taylor (later Sir P.G. Taylor) was involved in a variety of other important and nerve-wracking aerial adventures. Taylor was the right man for the job.
Photo: Powerhouse Museum
The Qantas Flying Boat ‘Frigate Bird II’
The Catalina is a twin-engined high-winged monoplane flying boat with retractable wing tip floats built by Boeing Aircraft of Canada Limited starting in 1944. It features an almost cantilevered wing mounted above a shallow but broad hull on a central pylon housing the flight engineer.