NEWS
Qantas Successfully Completes Non-Stop NY to Sydney Test Flight
Source: Qantas
The first longest non-stop commercial passenger flight has been successfully completed, with Australian airline Qantas carrying out a test flight from New York to Sydney.
Our very first #QantasResearchFlight has arrived at Sydney Airport with a total flight time of 19 hours and 16 minutes. pic.twitter.com/9aOOV3Nz2s
— Qantas (@Qantas) October 19, 2019
The 10,066-mile flight took a little over 19 hours with 49 people on board a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
Passengers and crew on board the Qantas flight were monitored by researchers from Sydney University’s Charles Perkins Centre, Monash University and the Alertness Safety and Productivity Cooperative Research Centre to research the potential impacts of non-stop long haul flights on humans.
Find out more about what happened on our #QantasResearchFlight for #ProjectSunrise here: https://t.co/O14zILTd4T
— Qantas (@Qantas) October 20, 2019
Qantas will carry out another test flight from London to Sydney in November and another New York to Sydney flight before the end of the year.
“This is a really significant first for aviation. Hopefully, it’s a preview of a regular service that will speed up how people travel from one side of the globe to the other,” Qantas Group Chief Executive, Alan Joyce, said in a statement. “We know ultra long haul flights pose some extra challenges but that’s been true every time technology has allowed us to fly further. The research we’re doing should give us better strategies for improving comfort and wellbeing along the way.”
Qantas hopes to offer non-stop flights from Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne to New York and London by 2022 or 2023.
