Technological development of aeronautics industry has created a shift in general aviation business. This claim can be seen through two of the aviation’s leading manufacture companies’—Airbus and Boeing—newest aircrafts. Both Airbus’ A350 and Boeing’s B787 Dreamliner series have offered a better machinery that leads to a better fuel efficient and relativity low capacity, One Mile at a Time stated, effectively reducing the need to dump fuel mid-air. As a result, the aircrafts are able to operate a really long flight for a profitable manner.
The existing longest commercial flight’s record is held by Singapore Airlines, which numbered SQ22, that serves Singapore to New York (Newark Liberty International Airport) route for a 17 hours and 52-minute flight duration. However, international airlines are competing to break it by creating a little bit longer flight duration path. One of the aforementioned companies is Qantas—Australia’s flag carrier.
In the last quarter of 2019, Qantas tried its soon-to-be longest flight by taking 40 non-paying passengers with 12 crews to fly from New York to Sydney for a 19 hours and 19-minute flight duration. The research flight was intended to see how well passengers can handle and adapt during the ultra-long flight. Angus Whitley on Time explained in detail on what was like to fly the longest flight.
He stated that right after the aircraft left the ground, all passengers were asked to amend their clocks to Sydney’s current time. The purpose of that was to make everyone abroad following the destination’s time zone, hence, a better adapting method for the body. For Sydney was a morning time, passengers were requested to stay awake for at least the first six hours trip. Researches then took notes of each one of the people inside while the crews served the first meal.
Whitley was awake for another six hours, got to taste the second meal, then fell asleep for a whole six hours later. It was about fourteen hours in flight when he woke up and felt refreshed. He then discussed the flight with one of the passengers, and both of them agreed that they felt good after the long sleeping hours. He even said he made it through a children’s birthday party after landing in Sydney.
To conclude, the ultra-long haul flight from New York to Sydney was quite his favorite. He said he would choose it over a layover one. However, he reminded us that it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, for it had to take some discipline and work from the passengers for the flight to work best.
