Former Qantas 747 pilot Owen Zupp takes Airliner World on board the carrier’s final jumbo flights as the Australian heavyweight consigns the Queen of the Skies to the history books

A hallmark of the aerospace industry is its dynamic, constantly evolving nature. A little over a century has passed since the Wright Brothers made their momentous flights at Kitty Hawk, in frail machines of spruce and muslin, and today we have private ventures flying to space stations and aircraft that can fly farther and faster than we once dared to imagine.
Conversely, such a rate of advancement results in a sparsity of longevity. Today’s technology is often gone tomorrow.