A Qantas Airways jet has completed a record-breaking flight by a commercial aircraft, flying for 24 hours and 24 minutes over 14,338 miles from Melbourne to Toulouse. The non-stop test flight crossed the Pacific and Atlantic oceans before landing at the Airbus factory in south-west France on Tuesday morning.
New ultra-long-range aircraft
The flight was operated by the new A350-1000ULR airliner, with ULR standing for 'ultra long range'. Qantas plans to use the aircraft for its new route between Sydney and London, which will become the world's longest direct flight at 10,573 miles, expected to take between 19 and 22 hours starting from October next year.
Records and comparisons
Plane tracking website Flightradar24 reported that Tuesday's journey was its second-most monitored flight ever. The aircraft crossed 17 different time zones, setting a new world record for distance travelled by a commercial aircraft, beating a 2005 record set by a Boeing 777-200LR that flew 13,422 miles over 22 hours and 42 minutes from Hong Kong to London via the Pacific. However, Flightradar24 noted that the longest non-stop commercial flight in history remains Qantas' Catalina flying boats from the Second World War.
Aircraft specifications and future plans
Qantas has ordered 12 of the specially adapted A350-1000ULR aircraft, each carrying 238 passengers and featuring an additional fuel tank with almost 21,000 litres of fuel. The outbound flight from Toulouse to Melbourne last week lasted 19 hours and 12 minutes. Qantas also plans to introduce another ultra-long-haul route between Sydney and New York, covering 9,950 miles. The current longest regularly scheduled direct flight is by Singapore Airlines between Singapore and New York City, a distance of 9,537 miles taking just under 19 hours.
