{"id":549624,"date":"2026-07-29T13:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/549624\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T13:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:24:15","slug":"qantas-24-hour-test-flight-tracked-by-millions-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/549624\/","title":{"rendered":"Qantas 24-hour test flight tracked by millions online"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Qantas aircraft set to be used for direct flights between Australia and Europe has been tracked by millions of internet users as it completed a marathon 24-hour test flight from Melbourne to France.<\/p>\n

The specially adapted Airbus A350-1000ULR is one of 12 aircraft set to be delivered to Qantas as part of Project Sunrise, which is due to deliver non-stop Sydney to London flights<\/a> from next year.<\/p>\n

Airbus said the aircraft, which boasts a specially designed extra fuel tank, remained in the air for 24 hours and 24 minutes, covering 23,075 km without stopping, before landing at the aircraft manufacturer’s factory in Toulouse, France.<\/p>\n

Flight-tracking provider Flightradar24 said the trip was the second-most-tracked flight ever on its channels – behind a 2024 flight carrying Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin – with more than 3.6 million people following its progress northwards via Canada.<\/p>\n

In 2005, a Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner flew 21,601.7 kilometres from Hong Kong to London in 22 hours and 42 minutes.<\/p>\n

Qantas has ordered 12 modified A350-1000ULR aircraft, designed to connect Australia’s east coast with London and New York in about 20 hours.<\/p>\n

The services aim to turn what was once a five-day journey on the “Kangaroo Route” to London into a single flight lasting 19 to 21 hours, depending on routing and winds.<\/p>\n

The first aircraft, which carries 20,000 litres of fuel and can seat 238 passengers, is due for delivery in April 2027.<\/p>\n

Qantas expects to operate daily nonstop flights between Sydney and London from October 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Qantas aircraft set to be used for direct flights between Australia and Europe has been tracked by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-549624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}