{"id":58193,"date":"2026-07-28T19:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T19:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/58193\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T19:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T19:37:13","slug":"qantas-project-sunrise-test-flight-tracked-by-3-6-million-internet-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/58193\/","title":{"rendered":"Qantas Project Sunrise test flight tracked by 3.6 million internet users"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Qantas aircraft set to be used for direct flights between Australia and Europe has been tracked by millions of internet users as it completed a marathon 24-hour test flight from Melbourne to France.<\/p>\n

The specially adapted Airbus A350-1000ULR is one of 12 aircraft set to be delivered to Qantas as part of Project Sunrise, which is due to deliver non-stop Sydney to London flights from next year.<\/p>\n

When launched, the route will become the world’s longest commercial passenger service.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The aircraft’s test flight was watched by more than 3.6 million people on FlightRadar24. (Supplied: FlightRadar24)<\/p>\n

Airbus said the aircraft, which boasts a specially designed extra fuel tank, remained in the air for 24 hours and 24 minutes, covering 23,075 km without stopping, before landing at the aircraft manufacturer’s factory in Toulouse, France.<\/p>\n

Flight-tracking provider Flightradar24 said the trip was the second-most-tracked flight ever on its channels \u2014 behind a 2024 flight carrying Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin \u2014 with more than 3.6 million people following its progress northwards via Canada.<\/p>\n

Sydney-to-London unveiled as first route for Qantas’s Project Sunrise<\/a><\/p>\n

The flights, set to begin take off from next year, will mark the first time flights from the east coast will complete the Kangaroo Route without a stop over.<\/p>\n

In 2005, a Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner flew 21,601.7 kilometres from Hong Kong to London in 22 hours and 42 minutes.<\/p>\n

Qantas has ordered 12 modified A350-1000ULR aircraft, designed to connect Australia’s east coast with London and New York in about 20 hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The services aim to turn what was once a five-day journey on the “Kangaroo Route” to London into a single flight lasting 19 to 21 hours, depending on routing and winds.<\/p>\n

The first aircraft, which carries 20,000 litres of fuel and can seat 238 passengers, is due for delivery in April 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Qantas expects to operate daily nonstop flights between Sydney and London from October 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Qantas aircraft set to be used for direct flights between Australia and Europe has been tracked by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13021],"tags":[17237,4616,5,17236,17235,36518,36494],"class_list":["post-58193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-airbus","tag-a350-1000ulr","tag-airbus","tag-france","tag-project-sunrise","tag-qantas","tag-sydney-to-london","tag-test-flight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}