Qantas claims distance record
 

AAP

Qantas claims distance record
January 09, 2003

QANTAS believes it has broken a world record, flying almost 17,000 kilometres from France to Melbourne without stopping.

The 20-hour non-commercial flight was to bring Qantas' new Airbus A330-200 plane home, after it was built in Toulouse, in southern France.

The aircraft, Qantas' second new Airbus, goes into service today on key Cityflyer routes between Sydney and Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.

"We believe we have achieved a 'distance without landing' milestone of 16,910 kilometres, improving on the current record of 11,249 kilometres which was accomplished on a flight from Toulouse to Santiago, Chile on 21 March 1998," Qantas executive general manager aircraft operations David Forsyth said.

Mr Forsyth said the Airbus' efficiencies had enabled the normal delivery flight to operate non-stop between France and Australia.

Qantas is awaiting accreditation from the Australian Sport Aviation Confederation in Canberra that the flight was a world record.

The potentially record-breaking flight was made at 856 km/hr and touched down in Melbourne at 4.46pm (AEDT) on Christmas day.

Qantas has bought 13 A330-200s and A330-300s from Airbus in a major fleet upgrade.

AAP

Is my memory playing silly bug.gers with me, or did not the Big Red Rat get their first 747-400 delivered from Heathrow to Sydney in one long trip?
that's a little longer than from Paris, though being a 747 it'd be faster. :)

yes, you right 18 wheeler.

London to Sydney in 20hr and 9min 9720nm (approx 18,001km)

I remember reading that Airbus flew an early A340 from Toulouse to Auckland nonstop. Next day flew from Auckland to Toulouse. Around the world with only 1 stop.

I think Toulouse-Auckland may be further than Toulouse-Melbourne.

Maybe the Toulouse-Auckland flight doesn't count, because the A340 was a pre-production aircraft without interior fittings, seats, galleys, etc.

Comments at the time were that Airbus worked pretty hard to achieve this, to top the Boeing/Qantas London-Sydney flight.

Can anyone confirm whether I have recalled this correctly or not ?

I think you will find the claim is for an A330 record.

Maybe it's just for a twin engined aircraft.......

Suppose Rutan and ex girlfriends Round the World in 4 or 5 days doesn't count!

Rutan's Voyager flight was a truly REMARKABLE achievement, and I think it took just over 9 days !!! Did you see the size of the cockpit for 2 people !!! Good thing they were very good friends at the time.

Is the Voyager classed as a twin, when most of the flight was done with the front engine shut down and prop feathered ?

Rutan and Yeager wrote a book, simply called VOYAGER. It's a great read.

My understanding was the 744 trip from London to Syd was a World Dist record for a COMMERCIAL AIRLINER

and the new Airbus record is for Endurance of a COMMERCIAL AIRLINER,

I dont think the Voyager comes under the classification of a commercial airliner,

Cheers All :)