By one of those strange coincidences, Qantas will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of its foundation when the first production models of supersonic airliners are about to go into service on the world's air routes.
For Qantas, or to give it its original name – Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited, was born on Nov. 16, 1920, and to this day has remained in the forefront of the world's airlines in terms of advanced technological thinking and route expansion, maintaining this tradition with its present orders for four Concordes and, tentatively, six U.S. SSTs.
But before the supersonic age begins, Qantas is looking to by far the greatest expansion of its career in the years 1962-70 – an expansion which has already begun and is very much in evidence in the increased financial and traffic results for 1962-63 and 1963-64 respectively.
In this context, the views of Capt. R. J. Ritchie, Qantas' deputy chief executive and deputy general manager, on the airline's present expansion and future aims are particularly significant, and on a recent flying visit to London he discussed them briefly with AeCAN.
Capt. Ritchie could not disclose any details of the financial or traffic figures for the year to…
