Plane makes huge record-breaking flight – over a day | World | News

A Qantas Airways jet has completed what is believed to be a record-breaking flight by a commercial aircraft. The Airbus plane flew for a whopping 24 hours and 24 minutes in its 14,338-mile journey from Melbourne to Toulouse.

The non-stop test flight from Australia saw the plane cross the Pacific and Atlantic before touching down at its factory in south-west France on Tuesday morning. The trip was completed by the new A350-1000ULR airliner, with ULR ⁠standing for ‘ultra long range’. Qantas is set to use the plane for its new route between Sydney and London in what will be the world’s longest direct flight.

The 10,573-mile journey will be regularly completed by the A350-1000ULR jets from October next year.

The flight between the two cities on the opposite sides of the world is expected to last between 19 and 22 hours.

The current longest regularly scheduled direct flight is by Singapore Airlines between Singapore and New York City — a distance of 9,537 miles which takes just under 19 hours.

Qantas has ordered 12 of the specially-adapted A350-1000ULR which carry 238 passengers and have an additional tank with almost 21,000 litres of fuel.

Plane tracking website Flightradar24 said Tuesday’s journey was its second-most monitored flight ever.

It said the aircraft crossed 17 different timezones as it set a new world record for distance travelled by a commercial aircraft, beating a record set by a Boeing 777-200LR in 2005.

The Boeing plane flew 13,422 miles over 22 hours and 42 minutes between Hong Kong and London, via the Pacific.

However, Flightradar24 said the Airbus flight was not the longest non-stop commercial flight in history, instead saying this title remains with Qantas’ Catalina flying boats during the Second World War.

The aircraft’s outbound flight from Toulouse to Melbourne last week lasted 19 hours and 12 minutes.

Qantas also plans to introduce another ultra long haul between Sydney and New York (9,950 miles).