Qantas has announced three ultra long-haul research flights to gather new data about inflight passenger and crew health and wellbeing.
Later this year Qantas is scheduled to take delivery of three new 787-9 planes from Boeing in Seattle, but instead of just flying them over they’ve decided to use them as guinea pigs for potential ultra long-haul routes from New York & London to Sydney direct.
Each flight will take approximately 19 hours to complete and break the current non-stop record flight, which was also set by Qantas back in 1989 using a 747-400.
The test flights will carry just 40 passengers (largely Qantas staff) and will be used as a means of testing the affects on the human body during extreme travel. Both passengers and crew will be wearing an array of sensors with data to be analysed by Melbourne’s Monash University.
Source: QANTAS TO OPERATE ‘PROJECT SUNRISE’ RESEARCH FLIGHTS – DIRECT NEW YORK & LONDON TO AUSTRALIA