Qantas Airways of Australia made a milestone after successfully landing the longest non-stop commercial flight (QF 7879) completing a 16,200-kilometre (10,066-mile) journey from New York to Sydney in 19 hours 16 minutes using a new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
The flight took off from New York filled with maximum fuel, 50 passengers and crew onboard team of researchers to monitor, among other things, lighting, activity, sleep and consumption patterns of passengers, and crew melatonin levels. They also tracked the brain wave patterns of pilots, equipped for the flight with brain monitoring devices.
“This is a really historic moment for Qantas, a really historic moment for Australian aviation and a really historic moment for world aviation,” Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce, who took the flight, said after landing.
No commercial aircraft has ever completed such an ultra-long-haul with full passengers and cargo load.
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Qantas Captain Sean Golding said the test flight was successful for both components one research and second the feat of distance which has never been achieved the flight even landed with 70 more minutes of fuel remaining in the tank.
Qantas Airways has also planned to test a similar flight from London to Sydney expected to make an announcement for this by the end of this year and the flight may be commenced in 2022 or 2023.
