The world’s longest-range airliner flew for the first time Tuesday when the first of 12 Airbus A350-1000ULRs destined for Qantas took off from Toulouse for an almost four-hour initial flight. The aircraft is fitted with an extra fuel tank near the rear of the fuselage and it boosts the range to about 10,000 miles or about 22 hours of flight time. Qantas specifically ordered the aircraft for nonstop flights from Sydney to London in an effort called Project Sunrise. The first one is a test article and the first flight did general checks and tested the new fuel system. It will undergo about two months of testing before the interior is put in and it starts flying the butt numbing route, but it won’t be the first one in service.
Airbus is well on its way to completing the second A350-ULR and it will be delivered in April of 2027. Qantas is also ordering a dozen of the 9,000-mile A350-1000s without the extra tank for use on the rest of its long-range network. Airbus has orders for 1,579 of four passenger variants of the A-350 and it’s introducing a freighter version next year.
It was inevitable.They should rightly call it Voyager2…
Wherever you fly, there you are.
Spending 7-9 hours in one of these Tylenol shaped cattle capsules is enough for me.
Imagine being airborne for longer with the next seat occupied by a screaming child and its hover-mom. No thanks, I’ll take the paddleboat.
At first I read that as a four-passenger variant instead of four (different) passenger variants…
Imagine the leg room!