Summary
Close to 4 million people followed the flight live on the tracking site Flightradar24, Guinness World Records said, as an Airbus A350-1000ULR flew 12,503 nautical miles, or 23,155 km, from Melbourne to Toulouse in 24 hours and 24 minutes. Airbus said in its announcement on 9 November that the aircraft had “officially broken the Guinness World Record for the longest flight by distance by a commercial airliner”. The record was validated by the International Aeronautical Federation and by Flightradar24, Airbus said. The category is measured by distance flown rather than by time in the air, and the distance recorded for the Melbourne to Toulouse sector is the 12,503 nautical miles the manufacturer gives, which it converts to 23,155 km. Guinness World Records said the flight “was followed in real-time by close to 4 million people on tracking site FlightRadar24”. That audience figure appears in the Guinness account of the record and not in the Airbus release. Melbourne to Toulouse on one sector The aircraft operated as flight AIB35LR. It left Melbourne at 17.27 local time on Monday 27 July and landed at Toulouse at 09.51 local time on Tuesday 28 July, Airbus said, for an elapsed time of 24 hours and 24 minutes. The routing was eastbound. Airbus said the aircraft climbed out of Melbourne, passed over Sydney, crossed the Pacific in the direction of Los Angeles, flew over North America, crossed the Atlantic, passed the United Kingdom and London, and then turned for Toulouse. Three continents and two oceans were crossed without a landing. Because the sector ran through a full day and into the next, the people on board went through two sunsets and two sunrises before the aircraft came down. Thirteen people were aboard, Airbus said. The flight was not a passenger service. Airbus said it was part of the flight test campaign for the A350-1000ULR, the version of the aircraft being developed for Qantas and the airline’s Project Sunrise plan for long non-stop routes out of Australia. An extra tank worth 1,000 nautical miles The range of the variant comes from an additional rear centre tank, which Airbus abbreviates to RCT. The company said the tank increases the aircraft’s range by 1,000 nautical miles. That additional range is what the planned Qantas services depend on. Airbus said the A350-1000ULR will allow the airline to fly non-stop from Sydney to London and from Sydney to New York, on sectors of up to 22 hours. The record sector was longer than either of those planned services. The aircraft stayed airborne for 24 hours and 24 minutes with 13 people on board, in a test configuration rather than in airline service. The figure Airbus publishes for the rear centre tank is the aggregate one: 1,000 nautical miles of additional range for the type. The company has not broken that figure down further in the release announcing the record. Twelve aircraft for Qantas, first delivery in April Qantas has ordered 12 of the aircraft, Airbus said. The first is due to be delivered next April, which would put the handover less than a year after the record flight was flown and a few months after the record was announced. Entry into service is planned on the Sydney to London route later in the same year, according to the manufacturer. Sydney to New York is the other route Airbus names for the type, also on sectors of up to 22 hours. Until then the aircraft is a test article. The Melbourne to Toulouse sector was flown as part of the campaign that supports the variant’s certification and entry into service, and Airbus published its distance and duration figures three and a half months after the aircraft landed. For the record itself, the numbers Airbus gives are flight AIB35LR, departing Melbourne on 27 July and landing at Toulouse on 28 July, 12,503 nautical miles or 23,155 km, in 24 hours and 24 minutes, with 13 people aboard.