A specially adapted Airbus A350-1000ULR has completed a historic 24-hour-plus non-stop test flight, landing in Toulouse, France on Tuesday after departing from Melbourne, Australia. The milestone flight clears a key regulatory and technical hurdle ahead of the aircraft’s entry into Australian carrier Qantas’ fleet starting next year, bringing the airline’s decade-long ambition of offering non-stop service between Australia and major Western hubs one step closer to reality.
The aircraft covered 23,076 kilometers (14,339 miles) across three continents and two oceans, experiencing two full sunset and sunrise cycles during the journey. The flight drew widespread global aviation industry attention, becoming one of the most tracked routes on popular flight monitoring platform Flightradar24.
The “ULR” designation on the plane stands for “ultra long range”, a capability enabled by a custom 20,000-litre rear center fuel tank added to the base A350-1000 airframe. The return Melbourne-to-Toulouse flight logged a total flight time of exactly 24 hours and 24 minutes, following an initial outbound leg from Toulouse to Melbourne one week earlier that covered 17,000 kilometers in 19 hours and 12 minutes. The return itinerary was intentionally designed to replicate the flight path the aircraft will follow when it enters commercial passenger service.
Qantas has scheduled delivery of its first A350-1000ULR for April 2024, with 11 additional aircraft set to join the fleet afterward. The jets will power the airline’s long-planned “Project Sunrise”, which aims to launch non-stop commercial service between Sydney and London by October 2027, followed by a second non-stop route linking Sydney and New York City.
The 12-person test crew included eight Airbus test pilots, two Qantas operating pilots, and two Airbus aeronautical engineers. During the flight, the team collected data on a series of key technical metrics: the structural integrity of the modified airframe built to accommodate the extra fuel tank, the performance of new cabin soundproofing modifications, and the efficiency of the aircraft’s in-cabin air circulation system.
Qantas first announced Project Sunrise nine years ago, but the initiative has faced repeated delays amid regulatory reviews and supply chain disruptions. Currently, the world’s longest active commercial flight is Singapore Airlines’ non-stop route between Singapore and New York, which covers 15,350 kilometers with a flight time of more than 18 hours, operated by a different variant of the A350 family. Once launched, Qantas’ new ultra-long-haul routes will extend the world’s longest commercial flight time by more than six hours, opening a new era of long-distance air travel.