Project Sunrise takes flight: the A350 built for 22 hours
Qantas’s first ultra-long-range A350-1000ULR flew on 2 June. Certification comes next.
The aircraft that will link Sydney nonstop with London and New York made its first flight on 2 June. MSN707, the lead A350-1000ULR for Qantas’s Project Sunrise, began a certification campaign of about 80 flight hours over two months.
The ULR variant carries a 20,000-litre rear centre tank, a modified fuel system and a new galley cooling system, and is designed for flights of up to 22 hours. For testing it carries about five tonnes of instrumentation and more than 1,000 sensors.
Qantas has 12 of the aircraft on order. Production cabins will include crew-rest compartments, and European regulator EASA must certify the type before it enters revenue service.
For Australian travellers it is the most significant change to long-haul flying in a generation: the end of the refuelling stop.
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