They launch the longest non-stop flight: from New York to Sydney in 19 hours

Including the crew, about 40 people – mostly Qantas employees – will travel aboard the Boeing 787-9 taking off on Friday in New York. After flying over America and the Pacific, he is expected to land in Australia on Sunday morning.

The number of passengers has been limited to reduce the weight and allow the plane to move 16,000 km without refueling For Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas, no airline has achieved this feat, which defines it as "the last frontier of aviation".

The longest commercial air route in the world to date covered the route between New York and Singapore. It was operated in 2018 by Singapore Airlines and lasted 18 hours, according to the airline's website.

On board the Qantas flight, researchers from two Australian universities will be traveling to observe how passengers sleep and feed and to control their level of melatonin, the "sleep hormone". Pilots will carry a sensor that will measure cerebral activity and alertness.

Since there is a difference of 15 hours between the two cities, the impact of the lag will also be analyzed.

"The fundamental scientific knowledge of circadian rhythm shows that the greater the difference in time between the starting and the ending places, the more noticeable the effects of time lag are, which is also more important if you travel to the Is rather than west, "says Stephen Simpson, a professor at the University of Sydney.

"But we also know that people react very differently to shifting and that it is necessary to continue research on shift and fatigue factors during the trip in order to reduce the impact of long-haul flights. . "

Last year, Qantas launched the first direct commercial connection between Australia and the United Kingdom, with a flight between Perth and London, lasting 17 hours and 45 minutes, according to the website of the airline.

This considerably shortens the famous "Kangaroos Route" which, when it was launched in 1947, took four days between Sydney and London, with nine stops. The Australian airline will soon test a London-Sydney flight. It will then decide if these long-distance trips are economically viable.

Unions worry about the length of journeys and security measures. The Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA) believes that these experimental flights "only provide a limited amount of data that does not reflect the conditions of a real flight".

Shane Loney, head of AIPA, asks for a long-term study on the effects of this type of flight on the crew. Pilots want to make sure they "have enough rest for optimal performance".

A spokesman for Qantas said in an email that experimental flights were only one aspect of the research conducted on the viability of these very long journeys.

According to Joyce, Qantas has not yet decided to choose Airbus or Boeing for the planes it would use for these flights in case they are officially launched someday.