Page 13 - AAA OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2019 Online Magazine

[ AIRLINES ]
time technology has allowed us to fly further. A350-1000 weighing 45 tonnes less at take-off compared to the
The research we’re doing should give us better 777X, is confident of winning the order. “The airplane will be avail-
strategies for improving comfort and wellbeing able in the time frame required by Qantas at the end of 2022,”
along the way. Airbus head of A350 marketing Marisa Luisa Lucas Ugena said.
“There are no uncertainties around it. Various adjustments are
“Night flights usually start with dinner and then being discussed with Qantas to increase the performance of the
lights off. For this flight, we started with lunch A350-1000, including bumping its range up 700 nautical miles to
and kept the lights on for the first six hours, 8,700 nautical miles with 375 passengers.
to match the time of day at our destination. It
means you start reducing the jetlag straight Under a new agreement with Boeing, Qantas will re-purpose the
away. scheduled empty flights of upcoming 787-9 deliveries in October,
November and December as research flights for the long-haul
“What’s already clear is how much time you can routes. Australia’s regulatory authority, the Civil Aviation Safety
save. Our regular, one-stop New York to Sydney Authority will also use data collected by the onboard medical
service (QF12) took off three hours before our crew to establish new regulatory requirements for the long-haul
direct flight but we arrived a few minutes ahead flights. Two Australian universities, Monash University and Sydney
of it, meaning we saved a significant amount of University’s Charles Perkins Center will participate in the onboard
total travel time by not having to stop,” added research portion of the flights. “Ultra-long haul flying presents a
Joyce. lot of common sense questions about the comfort and well-being
Qantas Captain Sean Golding, who led the of passengers and crew,” Joyce said. “These flights are going to
four pilots operating the service, said: “The provide invaluable data to help answer them. “We know that Boeing
flight went really smoothly. Headwinds picked and Airbus have aircraft that can do the job, and we have their
up overnight, which slowed us down to start best-and-final offers on the table – including a compelling offer from
with, but that was part of our scenario planning. Boeing to deal with any delay to the 777X. We have a high-level
Given how long we were airborne, we were able design of what our cabins would look like. And we’re working with
to keep optimising the flight path to make the regulators to allow flights beyond 20 hours,” Joyce said. “There’s
best of the conditions. plenty of enthusiasm for Sunrise, but it’s not a foregone conclusion.
This is ultimately a business decision and the economics have to
“We had a lot of interest from air traffic control- stack up,” Joyce added.
lers as we crossed through different airspace
because of the uniqueness of this flight. We also PROJECT SUNRISE RESEARCH FLIGHTS – KEY FACTS
had a special sign off and welcome home from
the control towers in New York and Sydney, • Non-stop flights from New York and London to Sydney will take
which you don’t get every day. “Overall, we’re around 19 hours each, subject to wind and weather conditions.
The data will be used to inform all Sunrise flight planning, includ
really happy with how the flight went and it’s ing from Brisbane and Melbourne.
great have some of the data we need to help
assess turning this into a regular service,” said • The aircraft will position from Boeing’s factory in Seattle, where
they will be collected off the production line by Qantas pilots, and
Captain Golding. flown to their starting points of New York (for two of the flights)
and London (for one flight). Cabins will be fully fitted out and
The Way Forward otherwise ready to enter normal commercial service.
Two more research flights are planned as part • The flights will take place in October, November and December,
of the Project Sunrise evaluations – London to in-line with scheduled aircraft deliveries from Boeing.
Sydney in November and another New York to • Flights will have up to 40 people (including crew) on board and
Sydney in December. All carbon emissions from a minimum of luggage and catering to extend the range of 787-9.
the research flights will be fully offset. Qantas
has named its endeavour “Project Sunrise” • Other than crew, those in the cabin will mostly be Qantas employ
ees taking part in testing. No seats will be sold as these flights
after the airline’s historic ‘Double Sunrise’ are for research purposes only.
endurance flights during the Second World War,
which remained airborne long enough to see • After the flights, each aircraft will enter regular service with
Qantas International – with just a few extra miles on the clock.
two sunrises. “We’ll be making the final YES-NO
decision on Sunrise by the end of this year. In • Qantas operates the largest airline carbon offset scheme in the
the meantime, we have an opportunity to do world. This same program will be used to offset all the carbon
emissions from these three flights.
some exciting research,” Joyce said.
• No commercial airline has ever flown direct from New York to
Australia. Qantas has once flown non-stop from London to
Airbus and Boeing are fighting aggressively Sydney in 1989 to mark the entry into service of the Boeing 747-
to win Qantas’ Project Sunrise order. Not only 400. That flight had a total of 23 people on board and minimal
would the winner see record titles applied to internal fit-out in order to provide the range. The aircraft, regis
the aircraft, but also end up being an A380 tered VH-OJA, was donated by Qantas in 2017 to the Historical
Aircraft Restoration Society near Wollongong, New South Wales.
replacement in the future. Airbus with the

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