The World’s Longest  Flight Has Landed in Sydney

The 19 hour test flight is the worlds longest, covering 10,000 miles with a total of 50 crew and passengers onboard

The record breaking 19 hour flight took to the skies with 50 passengers and crew on board, from New York and had successfully landed in Sydney this morning (Sunday, 20 October).

The Quantas flight 7879 touched down after travelling 16,200km in the experimental ‘Ultra-Long-Haul’ flight.  The test flight required only a handful of passengers, no cargo and restricted baggage while fuel was at a maximum capacity.

Researchers monitored various elements during the Ultra-Long-Haul flight, including brain patterns of pilots, sleep and consumption levels of passengers and crew melatonin.

Alan Joyce, chief executive for Qantas said after landing: “This is a really historic moment for Australian aviation and a really historic moment for world aviation.

“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 aim to reduce jet lag and work towards finding the best work pattern for crew members as well as increasing health on board.

Captain of the worlds first ultra-long-haul flight, Sean Golding said upon landing: “The flight was very successful from two components- the first one was research.

“And also the feat of the distance- that flight last night was 16,200 kilometres. We were airborne for 19 hours and 16 minutes, and we landed here in Sydney with a comfortable 70 minutes of fuel.”

Qantas aim to run regular flights from the Australian east cost to New York and to London and will continue will more test flights and assess the viability of the services at the end of the year.

news