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The world's longest flight is currently provided by Singapore Airlines' Airbus A350-900ULR, which provides non-stop services between Singapore and Newark. This flight covers a distance of more than 9,500 miles and can last up to 18 hours. It is therefore absolutely incredible that the flight can be made non-stop.
The great aspirations of Qantas in New York and London
There is another flight even longer on the horizon. Qantas explains for a while that they would like to be able to travel non-stop from Melbourne and Sydney to London and New York. They call this goal "Project Sunrise".
The problem is that there are currently no aircraft capable of making these non-stop flights of more than 10,000 km, more than 20 hours. Qantas has therefore asked Airbus and Boeing to develop aircraft capable of performing these flights.
What can Airbus and Boeing do?
You might think, "Wait a second, does not it take years to design new planes?" So we've always been waiting for Airbus and / or Boeing to modify the existing planes to make it work, rather than develop new planes.
Nowadays, aircraft manufacturers can make improvements long after the aircraft is put into service. For example, Airbus recently announced an increase in the scope of the A220, while the aircraft was already flying.
In the case of Airbus, they would likely alter the A350, while in the case of Boeing, they would probably change their 777-8, which will soon come into service.
Qantas had to adjust its expectations a little since the launch of this project in terms of the number of passengers it will be able to carry, but they still believe that Airbus and Boeing can develop planes that will be able to operate these flights. economical way. way.
Airbus confirmed what he could do
There is an interesting update on this – Airbus has just confirmed that they have been able to make modifications that allow both variants of the A350 to meet the requirements of Qantas. So we could see modifying the A350-900 or the A350-1000 to meet the requirements of the "Sunrise Project".
While I thought Airbus would be able to achieve it, I am impressed that they were able to run this on both the -900 and -1000 versions of the aircraft.
In reality, Airbus was already not so far from that. For example, the A350-900ULR already has a range of about 11,200 miles, although this capability is based on limited capacity.
When will Qantas make a decision?
Qantas expects Airbus and Boeing to transmit their final bid for the project in August, after which Qantas hopes to make a decision by the end of the year. Then, Qantas hopes to start these flights by 2022, although I guess it's still subject to change.
Bottom line
We have seen many new very long-haul flights added in recent years. Most of the time, there are not many very long-haul flights on the horizon, although the new Qantas roads will make history if / at the time of their launch.
I can not wait to see what Qantas plan has chosen for this project and how it chooses to configure these plans. While they initially wanted a four – cabin plane with a capacity of at least 300 people, we know that they had to compromise.
So, will they follow Singapore Airlines' lead on their A350-900ULR and have only business classes and a premium economy, or what will they decide?
This should be interesting to watch and it is exciting to know that Airbus knows at least that they will be able to meet the requirements of Qantas.
Do you think Qantas will go with the A350 or the 777-8 for Project Sunrise?
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