Inside Airbus's record-breaking NON-STOP flight from Melbourne to Toulouse
What's the farthest flight you’ve been on?
We can guarantee it wasn’t as long as Airbus's impressive flight from Melbourne to Toulouse, which broke the world record for the farthest flight of a commercial aircraft.
The Airbus A350-1000ULR flight test aircraft set off back in July and travelled an impressive 23,155.6 km (12 503 nautical miles) in 24 hours and 24 minutes.
The record-breaking flight was undertaken as part of the Qantas' Project Sunrise to certify the aircraft and test its capabilities for long-distance flights.
As the record-breaking flight took off, the world certainly took notice as it was followed in real-time by close to 4 million people on tracking site FlightRadar24.
The route saw the plane depart from Melbourne and fly over Sydney, before heading over the Pacific Ocean towards Los Angeles.
It continued to fly across the North American continent and over the Atlantic Ocean before heading towards the UK and on to Toulouse.
During its flight, the aircraft crossed three continents and two oceans, and the crew were even treated to two sunsets and two sunrises!
A total of 13 people were on board the aircraft, these included a flight crew of three Airbus flight test pilots, two pilots from Qantas and five Airbus flight test engineers.
This long-distance flight was achieved with specially designed 20,000-litre central fuel tank provided by Rolls-Royce.
This achievement reflects the pioneering and innovative spirit that is part of our DNA at Airbus. In responding to the challenge laid down by Qantas, our teams came together to extend the range of A350-1000 in an efficient and economically viable way to undertake the world’s longest ever commercial flights. Flying 12,460 nautical miles non-stop, we have fully proven the aircraft’s capability to fulfil its mission. And the world record was the icing on the cake! - Lars Wagner, Chief Executive Officer Commercial Aircraft at Airbus
The completed test flight will enable Qantas Airways to operate non-stop flights between Sydney and London and New York for the first time ever in 2027.
Currently, the longest passenger flight service is Singapore Airline's route between Singapore and New York and lasts more than 18 hours.