Qantas Sunrise: Ability to fly directly to any city in the world

In March 2018, Qantas launched one of the longest routes in the world, which is operated by direct, non-stop flights. The Perth - London route is the second longest in the world, the distance between 2 cities being 14 498 kilometers. And the flights are honored with Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft.

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In March 2018, Qantas launched one of the longest routes in the world, which is operated by direct, non-stop flights. Perth - London route it is the second longest in the world, the distance between 2 cities being 14 498 kilometers. And the flights are honored with Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft.

But this route is just the beginning for Qantas. The Australian carrier, which has managed to unite the UK with Australia, is working on new long-haul routes. With "Qantas Sunrise", you want to be able to fly directly to any city on Earth, starting from anywhere, making the world seem smaller and smaller.

Qantas Sunrise

What is Qantas Sunrise? The project was inspired by the Double Sunrise flights that Qantas operated during World War II, with passengers saying they were witnessing a double sunrise. Alan Joyce, Qantas CEO, described his ambition as "the antidote to the tyranny of distance".

Qantas challenged Airbus and Boeing, the world's largest commercial aircraft manufacturers, to develop an aircraft capable of flying anywhere in the world, starting anywhere.

London and Paris - Sydney

Qantas wants its aircraft to reach Paris or London starting from Sydney and Melbourne, not just Western Australia through Perth. And this plan has to be put in place by 2022. Other destinations mentioned by Qantas are: Cape Town, New York and Rio de Janeiro. According to Alan Joyce, this would be the last frontier in global aviation.

Project-Sunrise-Qantas

Alan Joyce also said that this challenge is not just about flying. Currently, there are airplanes that cover long and long distances. But the big challenge is to be able to fly with a plane wherever you want, starting from anywhere, and it will be loaded to the maximum capacity (passengers, luggage and cargo).

Everything must be in complete safety and comfort. The aircraft desired by Qantas must be able to fly 17 hours or 21 hours and provide the same operational efficiency whether flying Sydney - London or Sydney - Hong Kong.

Airbus A350-900ULR Vs. Boeing 777-8X

It is a challenge for the giants Airbus and Boeing. How are they doing with "homework"? So far so good. Both producers took up the challenge. Next week, weather permitting, the first Airbus A350-900ULR will take off in the inaugural test flight. This model was commissioned by Singapore Airlines to facilitate the resumption of flights on the Singapore - New York route, which will be the longest in the world.

At the moment, the longest route in the world is honored by Qatar Airways on the Doha - Auckland route. The distance between the two cities is 14526 kilometers, and the flights are honored with Boeing 777-200LR aircraft.

Returning to the Singapore - New York route, it will be covered by the Airbus A390-900ULR in approximately 19 hours. Airbus officials said the model could also cover the Sydney-London route, but did not fully comply with Qantas requirements.

Singapore - New York with Airbus A350-900ULR

At a meeting with Airbus and Qantas officials, Alan Joyce said he wanted a long-haul plane capable of carrying up to 300 passengers over the distances mentioned above. Currently, the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which flies on the route Perth - London, can carry 236 passengers. Regarding the A359-900ULR, the carrying capacity is not yet clear.

But Boeing is working on another project that will compete with Airbus A350-900ULR. This is Boeing 777-8X. If everything evolves according to plan, next year we could see the first copy of the new triple seven in flight. However, the autonomy of flight announced by Boeing, only 16100 kilometers, will be lower than the European rival.

How does Boeing defend itself with the lower autonomy of the new 777-8X? Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing at Boeing, said that you can't just build an aircraft for one airline and you can't compromise the aircraft for other markets. But he is confident that a solution will be found to solve the Qantas challenge as well.

Kangaroo Route (Sydney - London)

The Kangaroo route, specifically the first flights between Australia and the United Kingdom started in 1935, when the route lasts 12 days. The flights were operated by a De Havilland 86. Passengers flew to four different continents and enjoyed stops in Singapore, Baghdad and Crete, several destinations along the way.

In 1947, the travel time was reduced to four days. Subsequently, by introducing the Lockheed Constellation, Qantas reduced the journey time between Perth and London to just 55 hours, with six stops worldwide.

In the years ”70, the Australian airline was flying with Boeing 747, usually stopping in Singapore and Bahrain on the way to the United Kingdom. In 1989, Qantas operated the first direct flight between London and Sydney with a Boeing 747, breaking the world distance record. The flight was in one direction and without passengers.

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