✈️ Exclusive Benefits for Readers
Verified codes to save on your next trip.
Can you imagine being on a flight more than 20 hours in a row? the australian airline Qantas wants to have the longest flights in the world.
In order to expand its destination network from remote Australia to the world, the airline will carry out three special flights within Project Sunsire.
Project Sunsire
The Sunrise Project has the main objective of measuring, study and analyze the effects of flights of more than 20 hours in passengers, for this the airline plans a series of special flights.
during october, November and dicember, Qantas to reschedule delivery flights from Seattle aircraft Boeing 787-9 to cover the following non-stop direct routes:
- New York – Australia
- London – Australia
For the first time, a commercial plane will cover the direct route between New York and Australia, while from London it will be the second historic opportunity (Qantas flew it in 1989 with 23 passengers on a Boeing 747-400).
In these three special flights, only 40 people will fly including a larger crew, smaller, passengers and experts who with special equipment will measure the physical mental behavior of the experiment in all on board, in order to be able to comply with the autonomy required to be able to complete the flight, reducing the operating weight.
Too, The airline indicated that it is working with the state regulatory entities so that they allow flights of this and longer duration., along with minimizing carbon footprint.
The final objective of the study will be to evaluate the possibility of opening direct flights from the east coast of Australia (in Melbourne, Sydney) to London and New York.
- Non-stop flights from New York and London to Sydney will take around 19 hours each, subject to wind and weather conditions.
- The plane will be positioned from the Boeing factory in Seattle, where they will be collected from the production line by Qantas pilots, and will fly to their New York departure points (for two of the flights) and London (for a flight).
- Besides the crew, those in the cabin will be mostly Qantas employees taking part in the tests. No seats will be sold as these flights are for research purposes only.
The plane
In these 3 flights, the aircraft will be Boeing aircraft 787-9 with an autonomy of 7,530 nautical miles o 13,950 kilometres, what it roughly represents 17 flight hours, but what wind conditions could increase until the 19 and more hours.
If the studies are favorable, Qantas hopes soon to decide on its super long-haul aircraft of the future between the Airbus 350 and the Boeing 777X, of which already has firm proposals from each of the manufacturers.
Well. Many people get on a bus to pass between Latin American countries 30 hours in a row. What a difference. In a plane they first make a reconnaissance flight. With people for the experiments and people who are experts in the field to see their physical and psychological behavior. The upper social class is very delicate.
Good point, there are much longer journeys.
It is not the same by land as by plane, the effects are different.
Are they risking human lives to hold the record for the longest journeys??
Do you have any idea that any machine subjected to its maximum capacity is a candidate to fail much more than those that have an average performance??
It is precisely all that they are evaluating.
This is Qantas, a company specialized in long-range flights. I had the opportunity twice to fly from Los Angeles to Brisbane (Australia) on B747 with a time of 14,5 hrs. If it affects the time change.