Last Thursday (08) the world was surprised by the death of Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. In 70 years of reign, the UK's longest-serving monarch has used several aircraft on her official trips around the world.
Throughout her 96 years of life, Queen Elizabeth II has experienced wars, pandemics, economic crises and problems in the royal family. The monarch was married to Prince Philip with whom she had four children and eight grandchildren including Harry and William.
In 70 years of reign, the monarch used several types of aircraft on short and long trips using aircraft intended for royal transport or even commercial planes and helicopters, we will know some of them in this article.
Trip that changed your life
In 1952 on her first royal trip, Elizabeth II was not yet queen as her father was King George VI. At an advanced age, the princess then began to represent her father on official trips, and soon embarked on a tour that would through countries such as Australia, New Zealand and a age through the African continent.
The princess traveled on Canadair North Star, an 'updated' version of the Douglas DC-4 of the local airline British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). The aircraft registration G-ALHK received some modifications for the actual trip.
Its interior received some modifications such as the replacement of some lighter armchairs and two beds were also shipped. At the beginning of February, the aircraft left for Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, where they would make their first stopover for refueling and rest.
The journey should have continued to Australia and also to New Zealand on a ship but it was not possible to continue. The royal couple Elizabeth and Philip received the tragic news of the death of King George VI and immediately returned to the United Kingdom.
As everything needed to be immediate, an East African Airways Douglas DC-3 was reallocated to transport the royal couple from Nanyuki, a town in Kenya where they were resting and enjoying the journey to Uganda in Africa.
From Uganda, BOAC's Canadair North Star again transported Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip back to the UK. Naturally after her father's ing, Elizabeth then went on to become Queen Elizabeth II.
One of the first changes after the new queen took office was the change of the official name of the royal transport group to The Queen's Flight, which was previously called The King's Flight in allusion to the king.
The royal fleet consisted of Avro York, Vickers VC1 Viking, De Havilland Heron, De Havilland Devon, Hawker Siddeley Andover and a DHC-1 Chipmunk.
New era with Queen Elizabeth II
In 1954, the now Queen Elizabeth II continued her trip to Australia that ended up being interrupted by the death of her father and King George VI.
On the second occasion, Qantas provided a Boeing 707 for the monarch to use on her first visit to the country. With a differentiated and exclusive service, the airline became the 'official carrier' of the queen on trips to Australia.
In 1957, the new monarch made an official trip to the USA, but did not use any official aircraft from her royal fleet. The trip departed from Jamestown, Virginia, was carried out in the only Lockheed VC-121E ever built in history, in which it was designated to be the 'Air Force One' of the USA, service of President Eisenhower.
The plane became a military version and named 'Columbine III' for the L-1049 Super Constellation, serving the American president until 1961.
In the first trips made by the new monarch with her fleet, two Douglas Dakota aircraft were added, a military version of the DC-3. The new planes were used on a trip to Nepal in 1961.
Trip to Brazil
The queen came to Brazil in 1968, after a quick visit to Mexico where the Olympic Games were taking place. The aircraft used was a beautiful BOAC VC-10, where in Brazil the monarch ed through São Paulo, Campinas, Recife, Salvador and the new capital Brasília. The trip took a total of 11 days.
During her visit to the country, the British monarch watched alongside Prince Philip a soccer match for the Brazilian national team, where she also met Pelé. The royal couple won some very Brazilian souvenirs like a berimbau, a couple of jaguars, and a pair of dedicated earrings.
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The monarch's new 'darling'
Some time later the queen would fly in one of the most iconic aircraft in the entire history of aviation, the legendary Concorde. Queen Elizabeth II would fly on the British Airways Concorde.
The flight itself, in addition to being the monarch's first supersonic flight, was also the first Concorde flight that operated from Barbados in the Caribbean. The aircraft used on the official flight was the G-BOAE.
The Queen 'adopted' the Concorde for a few years on her official trips, having used the same on other trips to Barbados in 1987, 1983 and on a trip to Kuwait in 1979. On trips to the Middle East in 1984 and to USA 1991, the monarch also used the jet.
In 1986, three new BAe 146 aircraft were used, which were incorporated into The Queen's Flight fleet. As they were smaller aircraft, the British-built BAe 146s were used on domestic flights or on shorter flights across Europe.
All had the royal configuration, with a cabin exclusively made and dedicated to the royal transport.
Queen's preference for commercial aircraft
In the 90s, Qantas returned to transport the British monarch on trips to Australia, but this time with new and modern Boeing 747 aircraft. The trip took place on February 18, 1992.
In 1995, on a new international voyage, the Queen of the United Kingdom again traveled outside her official royal fleet. This time, Air New Zealand was chosen to transport the monarch, using a Boeing 747. The trip had a stopover in Los Angeles before arriving in Auckland.
During the flight, Queen Elizabeth II had First Class completely at her disposal, in addition to three exclusively dedicated cabin crew. In Business Class were 26 employees of the royal family, and curiously the other 384 seats in Economy Class were occupied by paying engers.
As it was a regular flight and ended up becoming a 'special', the engers on that Boeing 747 had to undergo an even more critical safety check, in addition to being presented with a special pen as a souvenir of this trip.
On her last international trips, Queen Elizabeth II flew on British Airways in the new Boeing 777-200ER. The trip was to Canberra and Melbourne in Australia in 2006, the aircraft scaled was G-YMMO which also made a stopover in Singapore.
In October 2011, a new trip was made aboard the Boeing 777-200ER, this time the G-YYMP was the one who transported the queen and the royal monarchy. The British Airways aircraft made Elizabeth II's last royal trip to Australia.
The trip itself was also a milestone for the airline, which operated a direct route between Perth and London for the first time. Until about 2019, the British Queen used RAF aircraft as a result of The Queen's Flight merger before 'retiring' from international travel.
This was our tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, who ed away last Thursday (08) after 70 years holding a position of great recognition in the United Kingdom.
