Qantas will operate three “Project Sunrise Research Flights” to gain data regarding passenger and crew wellbeing.
Re-purposed 787-9 delivery flights scheduled for October, November and December
On-board research to test ways of improving wellbeing on ultra long-haul flights
Made possible by carrying 40 people to increase aircraft range
The flights will take around 19 hours each.
The aircraft will position from Boeing’s factory in Seattle, where they will be collected off the production line by Qantas pilots, and flown to their starting points of New York (for two of the flights) and London (for one flight). Cabins will be fully fitted out and otherwise ready to enter normal commercial service.
Other than crew, those in the cabin will mostly be Qantas employees taking part in testing. No seats will be sold as these flights are for research purposes only. (sad face)
This is great news. It’ll be very interesting to see the future of these routes once Qantas selects the proposed A350/777X models.
These ultra long haul flights are becoming closer and closer to reality. I hope that the research turns out positive results, i.e. people not feeling sick after flying for such a long time, otherwise the project may end up delayed…
A359ULR has same problem that the 789 will have on these flights, it can’t carry a full passenger load which is something Qantas is aiming for. Yes the A359ULR can carry more passengers than the 789 on this flight, but the really only capable plane would be a modified 778, basically get a 778, do similar modifications to it like the A359 to the A359ULR, add more tanks, increace MTOW and you could just about get 280 or so passengers with just luggage, to London. Boeing has the upperhand here, it’s just whether they actually care enough to do so, because Qantas could be left with a less capable A359ULR if Boeing doesn’t put as much effort that Airbus is doing
The 777-8 can actually according to the numbers I can find make the flight with 60km of range to spare, so in a low density configuration, maby all business or something to that effect, and no extra cargo, it is actually very conceivable for it to make it with no modifications…
Well the range usually assumes max weight the way I understand it. So if they were to do a low capacity seating arrangement (which I would assume it would be all business, or economy+ at the very least since people would easily pay a premium for that much extra comfort on that long of a flight) and carried no extra cargo they could surely make it. It’s the same as how they are doing the 787-9 on these flights. It can’t actually make it with it’s published range, but they have greatly extended that by flying it very flight…
Well for me an avid Qantas fan, cough cough my profile name, I am very happy that Qantas has taken on this project for the B789 (Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner) I hope all goes well for them.