Originally Posted by aw8565
Also I remember hearing a story a while ago of a Quantas 744 that was aiming to set the longest (so far) commercial non-stop flight. Can't remember where from/to. The aircraft was apparently towed into position at the beginning of the runway to save the fuel otherwise used on the taxi out. I'm sure that the time between start up and (I'm sure a high power setting for a heavy, fuel-laden) takeoff would have not been more than a few minutes. Surely cold start to high power can't be good? My Vauxhall Astra certainly doesn't like it....
First up, it's QANTAS ("There's no 'U' in Qantas... ")
Anyway it was the delivery flight of QF's first 744. You're correct, it was towed out to the strip and ran-up there. Given that they were going further unrefuelled than had ever been done before, they were arguably justified in cutting every corner they could and having them topped to the vents at the get-go. They also used a fuel which had been especially brewed for that flight.
From the Qantas website:
"On 17 August 1989 the first Qantas 747-400, VH-OJA 'City of Canberra', touched down at Sydney Airport after a non-stop flight from London to Sydney. The 17,039 km flight, under the command of Captain David Massy-Greene, took 20 hours, nine minutes and five seconds and established a new world distance record for a commercial aircraft."
That absolute record was broken a few years back by a 777-200 (although that aircraft was in a lighter weight category, so the Qantas 747 record stood in the heavier category) which itself was broken last year by a 777-300LR which flew Hong Kong-London (and so took both the absolute and higher-weight category records). I'm not sure if any Airbus aircraft had beaten the Qantas 747's record before the 777s did.