The skyways are today's highways

Places
Accession Number ARTV05155
Collection type Art
Measurement Sheet: 101.4 cm x 63.6 cm
Object type Poster
Physical description offset lithograph on paper
Maker Jardine, Walter Lacy
Qantas Empire Airways Ltd.
Boylan and Co. Ltd.
Place made Australia: New South Wales, Sydney
Date made 1939
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Unlicensed copyright

Description

An advertising poster for Qantas Empire Airways designed by leading Australian commercial artist Walter Jardine in 1939. The poster depicts the Short "C" Class Empire flying-boat 'Cooee' taking off at Rose Bay, Sydney. This plane was part of the Qantas fleet during the early years of the Second World War; this kind of aircraft maintained essential air links with the UK. It was the first to fly the Sydney to Southampton route on 5 July 1938. The route took 4 days to cover, with Qantas crew changing to Imperial Airways crew in Singapore. When the Japanese attacked in the Pacific the aircraft was one of several cut off in Africa. In August 1942 Qantas transferred Cooee to the British airline BOAC, receiving another "C" Class aircraft in exchange. BOAC then used Cooee until the end of the war. It was broken up for scrap at Hythe in the UK in 1947.