24-Hour Flight: Qantas’ Airbus A350-1000ULR Sets New Benchmark

FLYING Magazine

An Airbus A350-1000ULR this week spent more than 24 hours in the air on a nonstop flight from Melbourne, Australia, to Toulouse, France, setting unofficial records for distance and endurance by a commercial airliner.

Airbus said Tuesday morning that the ultra-long-range A350-1000 variant landed in Toulouse after a 24-hour, 24-minute eastbound journey spanning 12,460 nm, or more than 23,000 km. The widebody airliner flew the “wrong way” from Australia rather than the shorter westbound route it took last week from Toulouse to Melbourne, which covered about 9,120 nm in around 19 hours and 12 minutes.

If validated, the more than 24-hour flight would surpass Boeing’s 2005 delivery flight of a 777-200LR from Hong Kong to London that covered about 11,664 nm in 22 hours and 42 minutes. That is the farthest flight on record by a commercial aircraft type, per Guinness World Records. Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) certification of the flight would further cement it as a benchmark for commercial aviation.

The 777-200LR is Boeing’s longest range aircraft in operation, capable of flying about 9,400 nm nonstop. Airbus’ is the A350-900ULR, with a range of 9,700 nm that allows it to operate regularly scheduled, nonstop flights between Singapore and New York for Singapore Airlines—the world’s longest such commercial routes.

The A350-1000ULR’s projected operational range of about 10,000 nm, however, would make it the new category leader. Qantas Airways in 2022 ordered a dozen of them for Project Sunrise—its vision to offer direct, nonstop flights from Sydney to London and New York in 22 hours. That would surpass the Singapore-New York route’s average duration of about 19 hours and distance of about 8,275 nm.

Qantas aims to launch the first Project Sunrise route in October 2027 after taking delivery of the first A350-1000ULR painted in the carrier’s livery, scheduled for April. It said last week that the first tickets for Sydney to London trips will go on sale in February. The carrier has estimated that three aircraft would be required to offer regularly scheduled service on either long-haul route.

Coming to Fruition

Airbus manufactured the 238-seat A350-1000ULR specifically for Project Sunrise.

The ultra-long-range version adds several range-extending enhancements to the standard A350-1000 model, including an extra rear center tank that boosts fuel capacity by about 20,000 liters. The modifications improve the standard model’s 9,000 nm range by about 1,000 nm.

The first A350-1000ULR to roll off Airbus’ production line is undertaking a two-month flight test campaign that began in June with a sortie near its headquarters in Toulouse. Qantas last week said it has since undergone “extensive testing” on the ground and in the air to validate its redesigned fuel system.

The aircraft touched down in Australia last week after the more than 19-hour direct flight from Toulouse, which at the time represented its biggest test. Airbus equipped it with more than 1,000 specially designed sensors and filled it with “dummy” passengers to simulate the heat load of real people. Since the model is a production aircraft and will eventually carry passengers, Airbus engineers designed what the company describes as a “one-off, non-destructive ‘light’” instrumentation layout.

This week’s nonstop flight from Melbourne back to Toulouse is the closest Airbus and Qantas have come to simulating the actual routes the A350-1000ULR will fly.

Per the airline, an Airbus flight crew and two Qantas pilots during the return trip saw two sunrises and two sunsets. They flew the aircraft northeast over the Pacific, over the U.S. and Canada, then across the Atlantic and south over the U.K. to Toulouse, crossing three continents and two oceans.

Project Sunrise

Qantas in 2017 challenged Airbus and Boeing to extend the range of their next-generation aircraft. Airbus accepted and until this year had planned to deliver the first A350-1000ULR to the Australian carrier by 2026, later delaying it to April. Qantas in May told digital aviation news outlet SimpleFlying that the “next four [deliveries] will follow in quick succession, putting us back on our original schedule by November.”

Project Sunrise is named after the long-haul flying boats that the airline flew during World War II. Passengers and crews would see the sun rise twice on 33-hour trips. Qantas aims to field an airliner that is powerful—and importantly, comfortable—enough to make even longer trips viable.

The ultra-long-range A350-1000 variant is one of the largest widebodies in production. Powered by twin Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines, it has an intended cruise speed of Mach 0.85. Though it improves on the standard variant’s maximum takeoff weight, Qantas will limit seating to 238 passengers versus the standard 350 in order to improve comfort.

Also intended to make longer trips smoother for passengers is a new galley air cooling system with lighter refrigeration units. The new system reduces the A350-1000’s weight by about 300 kilograms and will become standard across the A350 family in the future. Test pilots will gauge the plane’s ventilation and temperature control during the two-month campaign in order to certify it.

Once testing is complete, the aircraft will be retrofitted to Qantas’ commercial specifications. Airbus will install the engines and a four-class passenger cabin. Forty percent of the 238 seats are expected to be premium, including six fully enclosed first-class cabins. Also planned is a “wellbeing zone” for passengers to stretch their legs and grab a snack.

Qantas said last week that the first A350-1000ULR to be painted in its livery, named Vega, “continues to take shape on the Airbus final assembly line” ahead of its planned April delivery.

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