if you want to set a record for a 747 flight - be prepared to be in the air both day and night

Dear blogreader,

This spring the worlds longest non-stop flight, operated with a 747 was recorded for a flight from SYD to DFW, at 15.25 hours for flight QF 7. I have ever since been puzzled with how they manage to get it back, knowing that the west-bound route is always longer

The clue to this came the last time I visted DFW and could not find the flight on the departure table. The clue is that the return flight make a a dash-and-splash stop in Brisbane before returning to Sydney, and thereby cut out the last 2 hours.

This flight is the longest one ever for a 747-400ER in commercial operation, even though longer flights have been made with the airbus A340-500/600 and the 777-200LR/300ER. The flight enable Australians to enter in the middle of the US with comparably short final hops to their east coast destinations.

A couple of interesting aspects of this very long flight are

• The maximum range at full load for a 747-400ER is 14 205km, leaving just 400km of extra fuel when the whole distance is covered has been covered the straightest way
• Airlines have well establsihed statistics on weather patterns, that need to be learnt for a new route like this.
• Taking a full load of passengers and fuel, might not leave room for all the luggage to get on board, and so happened for one of the first flights were a lot of head wind was anticipated.
• Quantas have never lost a plane, and are very likely eager to keep that track record.

This route and other long routes enabled by the 787 Dreamliner is likely to push the current world record Newark-Singapore at 18:50hours up further. But still close to 19 hours is a long time in a plane....

Stay tuned.