1971.

It was the year Qantas flew its first jumbo jet – and the year Qantas released its first album.

One held up a bit better than the other.

We’re still flying the 747s today, but it’s been a long time since anyone tuned into Wout Steenhuis & The Kontikis performing the sounds of Hawaii, or the flower power anthem Aquarius covered on a cheesy electric organ.

They were just some of the tracks on ‘There’s Music In The Air!’, a full-length album of covers released by Qantas as our first piece of inflight audio entertainment.

Passengers on the new jumbo could pop in a pair of earphones – which looked like an oversized doctor’s stethoscope – and listen along at 35,000 feet.

We followed up our debut effort a few years later with the sequel: ‘Qantastic!’.

Yes, that was actually its name.

No doubt it’s easy to look back and cringe, but at the time, the birth of inflight entertainment must have felt like as much a leap forward as a double-decker plane.

Today, most passengers prefer to stream their own music via our inflight Wi-Fi, just like they might do at home or on their way to work.

That technology puts a million more songs within their reach – just not on vinyl.

Take a look at some of this classic album artwork, and have a Qantastic day.