the aircraft, Charles Knight, to Winton on 7 February 1921. The trip of one and a half hours took considerably longer than that, with McGinness steering in the wrong direction, causing them to lose their path. They finally reached Winton after 3 hours of flight, with 15 minutes worth of fuel left. After "landing gracefully" to the cheering of a crowd in Winton, they were "entertained at a smoke concert at the North Gregory Hotel." In the hotel, McMaster outlined the links between aviation and defence, in reference to the future of Qantas. The next day, the 2 aircraft took off from Winton to return to Longreach. With Knight as his passenger in the BE2e, Fysh lost his way, missing Longreach by ; he navigated his way back to the town by following the Thompson River. The journey, coupled with the earlier delayed trip when flying from Longreach to Winton, proved to be too much for Knight, who sold the BE2e to the company upon landing, swearing that "nothing would induce him to fly again." The cost of the aircraft was £A450 which was partially bought, as insisted by McMaster, in the form of shares to the airline company. Further career with Qantas In 1922, Qantas was successful in bidding for the second Australian scheduled air route, which was to be established between Charleville and Cloncurry. The route was backed by the government, procured by relations between Qantas and regional politicians. While still piloting regularly until 1930, hard working Fysh studied business and management, and became managing director in 1923. When the airmail route to England was planned, Qantas successfully tendered, with Fysh involved in planning the route in the years 1931 to 1933. The final agreement saw Qantas flying the airmail to Singapore, where British Imperial Airways would take over. 1934, Qantas and Imperial Airways built a new company, Qantas Empire Airways, with both companies holding 50% of the stock. Fysh became managing director in the new formed company as well. He was also a co-founder of the Tasman Empire Airways Ltd in 1940, which later should become Air New Zealand. Second World War was hitting the prospering business of Qantas hard. Japanese attacks in Singapore destroyed half of Qantas' fleet, the airport in Darwin was under attack as well. Fysh, still an officer in the RAAF, took responsibility for using Qantas equipment in war-related efforts, for example evacuation