Qantas’ London to Sydney flight: Almost empty plane flies direct as part of ‘Project Sunrise’

The 10,537 mile flight left Heathrow this morning

Qantas completes test of first non-stop flight from New York to Sydney

Qantas is flying an almost empty nonstop flight from London to Sydney as part of the carrier’s “Project Sunrise”.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner left Heathrow this morning and is due to land in Sydney at 11.45am local time on Friday.

Qantas first flew from London to Sydney nonstop more than 30 years ago.

To recap our coverage, read the live blog below.

Key Points

The flight is part of Qantas' 'Project Sunrise'

[14 November 2019 08:27 · Cathy Adams]

Flight QF7879 left London Heathrow airport just before 6am for its mammoth 10.573 mile journey to Sydney, Australia, where it is scheduled to land around lunchtime tomorrow.

[14 November 2019 08:28 · Cathy Adams]

The Independent's travel correspondent Simon Calder has all the key questions and answers about the nonstop flight here:

[14 November 2019 08:59 · Cathy Adams]

From The Independent's Simon Calder:

The flightpath is staying well south of the most direct route. Instead of flying east-north-east over Copenhagen and Latvia, the aircraft is steering due east.

It flew over Amsterdam and Berlin, and traversed Belarus.

The trajectory is staying south of Moscow, even though the “great circle" route – the shortest distance between two points on the surface of the earth – would take it well north of the Russian capital

[14 November 2019 09:25 · helen.coffey]

Simon Calder says:

The Boeing 787 is flying at 35,000 feet at a speed over the ground of 568mph. If it keeps that pace, it should reach Sydney 19 hours after take-off – but winds later in the journey will be the deciding factor.

As more of the 100 tonnes of fuel are burnt, the aircraft will climb to 40,000 feet or higher – where it can fly more efficiently.

[14 November 2019 10:10 · helen.coffey]

Tracking websites let you watch where specific flights are in real-time. According to FlightRadar24, flight QF7879 from London to Sydney is currently flying over Russia, near the north-west Kazakhstan border. So far it's covered around 3,435km in four hours. Only another 13,575km to go...

[14 November 2019 10:27 · helen.coffey]

Besides the high cost of fuel, a significant cost for the operation is overflying rights, says The Independent's Simon Calder. Russia, Kazakhstan and China will make tens of thousands of dollars from the Qantas flight.

Just over four hours into the flight, the aircraft is 53 degrees west of Greenwich – and at the same latitude as Heathrow.

[14 November 2019 10:45 · helen.coffey]

As the Boeing 787 approaches the southern Ural mountains in Russia, it has covered 2,250 miles at an average speed of 562mph, including the ascent.

[14 November 2019 10:46 · helen.coffey]

The aircraft has finally turned slightly south just ahead of the Kazakhstan border, according to Simon Calder; 8,450 miles to run, which is the same as one of the longer links in the world: San Francisco to Singapore.

[14 November 2019 10:58 · helen.coffey]

Independent travel correspondent Simon Calder reports:

The winds are not as favourable as Qantas had hoped, with a current speed over the ground of 532mph. Add that to the longer track flown than the "great circle" route, and the predicted journey time is now 20 hours.

[14 November 2019 11:03 · helen.coffey]

Passengers on the right hand side of the plane who look behind should be seeing a glorious sunset. The sun will rise roughly when the aircraft makes landfall in Australia in about 10 hours.