This Day in History: 2019-11-15

Qantas Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner VH-ZNJ “Longreach” landed at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport on 15 November 2019 after flying non-stop from London Heathrow airport. The aircraft, loaded with 100 metric tons of jet fuel flew 11,060 miles nonstop, the flight taking 19 hours and 19 minutes. The flight shattered two records, becoming the longest commercial airline passenger flight for both distance and duration. The new Dreamliner was on the second leg of its delivery flight from Seattle, and departed from Heathrow Airport at 6 am Thursday morning, and flew over Germany, Russia, Poland, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, the Philippines, and Indonesia. This was a data-gathering flight, dubbed “Project Sunrise” and while the plane can hold up to 256 people, there were just 50 on board. All passengers and some of the crew were outfitted with monitors, and researchers from the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney will study how sleep patterns, movement, and food consumption on an extremely long flight affect a person’s health. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce commented “Flying nonstop from the east coast of Australia to London and New York is truly the final frontier in aviation, so we’re determined to do all the groundwork to get this right.” The airline is hopeful it can start offering nonstop flights from London to Sydney and vice versa in 2022. Sources: CNN Travel, The Week, Qantas Newsroom