A Qantas flight from London landed in Sydney 19 hours and 19 minutes after take-off, becoming the world’s longest non-stop trip.
The brand new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner left Heathrow at around 6am on Thursday and touched down in Sydney at 12.28pm local time on Friday after flying over 11 countries.
As the second of three research missions carried out by Qantas, the flight carried only 40 people – many of which were staff – who were carefully observed in order to investigate the effects on crew and passengers of ultra long-haul services.
A similar journey took place in October from New York to Sydney, which came with a flight time just three minutes shorter than the London excursion.
Those on board witnessed two sunrises, the first to the right of the aircraft as it headed north-east after take-off, and the second to its left as it flew over Indonesia.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Qantas said the direct flight was almost two hours fast than the usual transit time for the London-Singapore-Sydney route.
After covering around 11,060 miles, the aircraft landed with 6,300 kilograms of fuel in its tanks, equating to another one hour and 45 minutes of flying time.
Aside from research, the flight kicked off a year of celebrations for the centenary of the airline, which will officially turn 99 on Saturday.
Qantas chairman Richard Goyder said the flight continued the airline’s history of helping Australia engage with the rest of the world.
“Qantas is a national icon because it’s been such a big part of Australian life for so long,”Goyder said.
“Our founders talked about overcoming the tyranny of distance and through the years we’ve moved from bi-planes, to single wing, to jets to help bring things closer.”
Thursday’s flight was part of Project Sunrise, a bid to operate commercial flights from Sydney to London and New York by 2022 – providing plane manufacturers can provide a suitable aircraft.
Currently it is impossible to fly a plane at full capacity from London to cities on the east coast of Australia without stopping to refuel.
Qantas began flying non-stop from London to Perth in Western Australia in March 2018, as it is 1,600 miles (2,575km) closer.
A Dreamliner can usually carry between 230 and 300 people.
Qantas said all carbon emissions from the test flight will be fully offset.