An Airbus A350-1000ULR airliner designed to fly nonstop from Sydney to London or New York has unofficially broken the record for the longest nonstop flight by a commercial aircraft.

The aircraft – appropriately registered F-WULR and operated by four Airbus test pilots and five flight test engineers – landed in Melbourne at 10:45 on Friday (24 July) after a nonstop 17-hour and 13-minute flight from Airbus’ test facility and factory in Toulouse, France.

After a weekend on the ground in Melbourne, it departed just after 5:00 pm local on Monday (27 July), and took the much longer easterly route back to Toulouse via the Pacific and across North America, Greenland, the Atlantic and UK, and landed in Toulouse after more than 24-hours in the air.

The feat beats by more than an hour the previous 22-hour 45 minutes record set by a Boeing 777-200LR which flew easterly from Hong Kong to London in November 2005. While the record is yet to be ratified by the Guinness Book of Records, the Airbus aircraft appears to have easily surpassed the 11,664 nautical miles (21,601 km) flown by its Boeing rival.

The A350-1000ULR has been designed to a specification set by Qantas for that airline’s ambitious Project Sunrise which it hopes will allow passengers to fly nonstop between Australia’s east coast and London or New York. Currently, Qantas services to London are required to make a fuel stop in Singapore or Perth, while New York services stop in Los Angeles or Auckland.

The ULR – for ultra long range – is the latest variant of the successful large twin-engined airliner. It combines the fuselage of the stretched A350-1000 with a new 20,000-litre integral centre fuel tank designed to provide an additional 1800 km of range for nonstop passenger flights of up to 22 hours.

The first A350 that will be delivered to Qantas was rolled out at Toulouse on 17 June. Photo: Stuart Bailey via Qantas.

The new fuel tank forms part of the aircraft’s structure and its fuel system is different to other models, so the ULR will need to undergo a test program. This program includes maximum braking tests, minimum take-off speed (‘unstick’ or VMU), in-flight handling, and long-range proving flights in order to be certified for passenger service.

The test aircraft is currently the only one flying, making its first flight on 2 June. After flying several shorter test flights around Europe and the UK, the visit to Melbourne and return to Toulouse is its first long-range test.

Rather than being equipped with an airliner interior, the aircraft is fitted with banks of test instrumentation, and water barrels that can be filled to replicate a full load of passengers, luggage, and freight.

The test aircraft will be refurbished at the end of the flight test program and delivered to Qantas as the second or third A350-1000ULR in the fleet. The fact it has been kept in primer or undercoat colours for the flight test campaign has led some enthusiasts – including your writer – to suggest it may appear in a special heritage or First Nations paint scheme when it is delivered.

The first aircraft the airline will take – to be registered VH-OJA in service – was rolled out in Qantas colours at Toulouse without engines on 18 June, and is scheduled for delivery by the end of the year.

In service, the aircraft will feature a low density cabin with 140 Economy class seats in a nine-abreast 3-3-3 configuration, 40 Premium Economy seats in an eight-abreast 2-4-2 layout, 52 Business class seats in a 1-2-1 layout, and just six First class ‘suites’.

Early passenger flights will be conducted on short and medium-range routes while Qantas builds up its crews, ground handling, and maintenance processes, with long-haul services due to start in mid-2027.

Qantas is due to take delivery of 12 A350-1000ULRs, as well as 12 standard A350-1000s. It is planned that these new and highly efficient aircraft will replace older A330-300s and the airline’s 10 remaining A380s in service by 2032.

Original Article published by Andrew McLaughlin on PS News.

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