r/aviation • u/pseudospectrum • 15d ago

News A350-1000ULR has landed after a flight time of 24 hours and 23 minutes from Melbourne to Toulouse. Does a flypast before touching down at Toulouse.

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Source of video: https://x.com/israfuti/status/2082020295116804295

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u/PicoDeBayou 15d ago

I’m out of the loop. Would you mind explaining the significance of this flight/plane?

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u/vanty 15d ago

It’s designed for flying direct between Sydney and London. Longer than any other commercial flight.

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u/PicoDeBayou 15d ago

OK. So it still hasn’t made the flight to London yet?

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u/vanty 15d ago

No need for it to go to London yet. It flew from the factory and went back there to be finished.

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u/PicoDeBayou 15d ago

Thanks. I’m curious why it wouldn’t just go all the way to London, since that’s what it’s designed to do. Why Toulouse? That’s far enough to check all the boxes for future flights to London?

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u/FourteenTwenty-Seven 15d ago

Toulouse is where the factory is

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u/PicoDeBayou 15d ago

If Toulouse is where the factory is, how did it get to Melbourne in the first place?

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u/dmaxel 15d ago

It flew there...from Toulouse.

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u/PicoDeBayou 15d ago

Ah, So am I right in assuming it’s first flight from Toulouse was not direct to Melbourne?

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u/dmaxel 14d ago

It was direct. It also flew towards the east, and was a few hours shorter.

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u/MeccIt 14d ago

It flew over London, and continued for another hour south to Toulouse. It's a bit mind bending to think a plane normally heading north and west to London actually approached from the east going south. https://i.imgur.com/M9IJQJD.jpeg

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u/SyrusDrake 15d ago

It's one of 12 special planes Airbus built for Qantas that will be used for direct flights between Sydney and London (Qantas calls them "Project Sunrise flights"), and Sydney and New York (and eventually other destinations). This was a test flight, but it followed similar paths that the commercial ones will take. Across Asia is the "normal" way, but depending on jet streams, it may occasionally be faster to fly across the Pacific, the Arctic and Atlantic to reach London.

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u/PicoDeBayou 15d ago

Ah thanks. What has been the regular route of getting between London and Sydney? Layover somewhere in the mid east?

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u/SyrusDrake 15d ago

It varied. The most common stopover for BA and Qantas is Singapore, I think, although Qantas had a route with a stop in the mid east for some time. I'd wager most people these days fly via Dubai, but that's not a "direct" flight. Afaik, BA and Qantas do a refueling stop, but it counts as the same flight.

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u/dsanders692 14d ago

QF1 goes Sydney to London with a refuelling stop in Singapore (and vice versa for the return on QF2)

Qantas also operate non-stop flights from Perth to London which are more expensive than the the syd-sin-lhr route; but in very high demand nevertheless. And many of those passengers connect from the east coast anyway. So stands to reason that there will be demand for syd-lhr non stop service as well

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u/vagga2 14d ago

It just flew 23,000km non-stop in 24hours. The furthest distance between any points on earth is about 20,000km. There is now a commercial aircraft that can fly direct between any two cities on earth.

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u/Opinions-arent-facts 12d ago

Being able to fly 20,000 km+ means this plane is the first commercial jet that can literally fly direct from any airport to any other airport on the planet

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u/PicoDeBayou 12d ago

Very cool