New York–Sydney non-stop. The airline Qantas hopes that this will become a reality in a few years. Now the first plane to test fly the route has landed after 19 hours in the air.
At 7:43 a.m. Sunday morning local time, flight QF7879 touched down at Sydney International Airport.
The first test of what is intended to be the world's longest flight route to date had landed. The Boeing plane had taken off in New York on the east coast of the United States, just over 16,000 kilometers away, and had been in the air for 19 hours and 16 minutes, writes the Sydney Morning Herald.
The airline Qantas reports that everything went well and CEO Alan Joyce, who was on board, does not mince words when describing the attempt.
”"After 19 hours on board, I think it feels like we've done it. It felt like we were on board a much shorter trip," he tells Reuters news agency, calling the attempt a historic moment for the entire aviation world.
When the plane left It was Friday night in New York and to avoid jet lag, passengers were fed at carefully calculated times, and the lights were kept on and off at optimal times.
Only 49 people were on board the long flight, all to minimize weight and save fuel. Passengers were required to provide urine samples and both motor skills and reaction time were tested before, during and after the flight.
They were asked to set their watches to Sydney time at the start, and researchers from Sydney University kept the test subjects active with gymnastics exercises.
The company will now follow up this weekend's flight with two more tests on another planned route, between Sydney and London.
The world's longest commercial flight route now runs between New York and Singapore, and is a couple of hundred kilometers shorter than the route to Sydney.
If all goes well, Qantas hopes to open direct routes from London and New York to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane by 2023. Last year, the company inaugurated its longest route to date, between London and Perth in Western Australia. That journey takes ”just” 17 hours.
Source: TT
