https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/qantas-new-york-sydney-flight-scli-intl/index.html
The passengers have monitoring devices attached to check their well-being and how they'll be able to hold up during the trip. There will also be a test flight from London to Sydney, which is another 19.5 hour flight.
Almost 20 hours in the air. I know I get antsy around the 3-hour mark when I've flown. I also find it very difficult to sleep on planes, so I imagine I'd be pretty dog tired by the end of the flight. I've taken 8 or 9 hour flights in the past, and by the time those were over, I was more than ready to get out of that flying tube. I have a feeling I would just get stir crazy after a while, where you just feel like you have to get out of there:
Maybe they'll issue parachutes to people who can't make the whole trip and need to bail out.
(CNN) — And we have takeoff. A research flight set to test human limits on long-haul flights during what will be the first commercial flight to travel non-stop from New York to Sydney has departed John F. Kennedy International Airport.
With 50 passengers and crew on board acting as ultra long-haul guinea pigs, the Qantas Flight 7879 is expected to complete the 10,200-mile journey in 19-and-a-half hours, subject to wind and weather conditions. It is due to arrive in Sydney Sunday morning, local time.
Research will be carried out on passengers and crew, Qantas has said, to quantify the effects flying such a distance has on those on board, including health, wellness and jetlag.
The passengers have monitoring devices attached to check their well-being and how they'll be able to hold up during the trip. There will also be a test flight from London to Sydney, which is another 19.5 hour flight.
The next test flight will take place in November, from London to Sydney, while there will be another New York to Sydney flight before the end of the year.
After the test flights, the new planes will enter commercial service.
Qantas has said it hopes to operate direct flights from three cities on Australia's east coast -- Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane -- and New York and London by 2022.
Currently the only direct route from Australia to Europe goes from Perth to London, a 9,000-mile journey which started in March 2018.
How will passengers be monitored?
Researchers from Sydney University's Charles Perkins Centre, Monash University and the Alertness Safety and Productivity Cooperative Research Centre -- a scientific program backed by the Australian government -- will examine the impact of the long flight on those on board.
Almost 20 hours in the air. I know I get antsy around the 3-hour mark when I've flown. I also find it very difficult to sleep on planes, so I imagine I'd be pretty dog tired by the end of the flight. I've taken 8 or 9 hour flights in the past, and by the time those were over, I was more than ready to get out of that flying tube. I have a feeling I would just get stir crazy after a while, where you just feel like you have to get out of there:
Maybe they'll issue parachutes to people who can't make the whole trip and need to bail out.