Transpacific Flight from Sydney Australia to Vancouver Canada 51144 (1948)

Synopsis

In this era only four planes per day made the grueling flight. Featured in the film is a Douglas DC-6 operated by British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines or BCPA. This was an airline registered in New South Wales, Australia in June 1946 with headquarters in Sydney. It was formed by the governments of Australia (50%), New Zealand (30%) and the United Kingdom (20%) to pursue trans-Pacific flights. BCPA was later taken over by Qantas. (Note: the narrator refers to the aircraft shown in the movie as a "Skymaster" which was generally the name used for the C-54, a cargo aircraft related to the DC-6. The plane shown is the BCPA "Discovery", and it's possible it was actually not a DC-6 but a DC-4. BCPA operated DC-4s prior to acquiring DC-6s.) At 2:29, the plane lands at Fiji for refueling at the Nadi Airport. Fiji is shown including sugar cane cultivation, pineapple plantations, and more. At 3:30 stewardesses are introduced to the royal family. At 4:30 the film mentions a stop at Canton Island, but that stop is not shown. At 4:50, the aircraft arrives at Hawaii, and the Honolulu airport is shown. At 5:20 the stewardesses explore Waikiki Beach and pick up a surfboard to learn to surf. At 5:54, traditional hula dancing is shown. At 5:53, the trip resumes to Vancouver with stewardess service shown over the Pacific. At 7:20 San Francisco is seen from low altitude. San Francisco airport is shown briefly before the trip resumes over the Pacific NW. At 8:13 Vancouver is shown with its…

Uploader's description on archive.org

Details

Running time

10 minutes

Language

English

Collection

Ephemeral Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

• Stock Footage