I felt sure I remembered some airline or other (possibly Singapore?) announcing to great fanfare that they'd be running non-stop London-Sydney flights - or did I dream it?

Anyone know if such a flight is available, and who's operating it?

Thanks,
Alex

Wasnt that the new Virgin Plane? The new airbus thingy(cant remember the numbers, something like 282 or something )

Not sure they are in service yet, as all of the runways had to be either widened or lengthened because of its size....

I know, not alot of help....but I do try

AFAIK that'd be the A380, but I'm sure that some 747s can manage the trip too - just not all that cost effectively on account of the amount of fuel burned at the start of the trip to carry sufficient to finish it....

Anyone know if there are any, or plans for any this year?

No plans. There is talk that the Boeing dreamliner the 7E7 maybe able to do Perth London in one go. The plane has not been built yet. The new A380 is just big and won't make Europe - Oz in one go. There is another airbus which does Sydney Dubai in one go (about 15 hours).

would you really want to go all that way in one go without stretching your legs?
i found it bad enough with a 1 hour stop in frankfurt and a 1 1/2 hour stop in singapore, when you're stopping off you can count down to the next stop
shell

My Dad (who is in the aviation industry) says they may be doing London Perth in 14 hours by next summer with the new A380. I understand Singapore have already bought/commissioned several.

The other issue is where they would divert to if they had to. With an aircraft that size not many airports can accommodate - and there's not much near Perth in terms of major cities!

Hubby said on Radio 2 it had been mentioned that someone over heard some pilots on a train talking about the new airbus and how no one has been able to land it in the flight simulator without taken out an engine or a wing :scared:

Sasha

There is something of a myth about a lot of new planes.

The cruising speed of airliners has not increased for over 40 years and the new A380 will be no quicker.

No conventional jet can travel from the UK to Perth with a full load and certainly not in 14 hours. It is physically impossible. It takes nearly 14 hours to get to Singapore on a bad day and that is a few thousand miles short.

Concorde could have done the speed but was limited by the amount of fuel it could carry.

It will take a new kind of airliner to do it in one go or a conventional one with no passengers on board.

G

Have just been chatting to my mate who is an airbus pilot. He says there is some truth in this - its to do with the fact that the engines are quite close to the ground, and if landing in a strong crosswind its quite difficult to get the ground clearance right so that the engines don't impact with the ground. Its made harder by the fact that the plane is very heavy, due to its size, and this causes at present too great a compression of the landing gear - hence again bringing the engines close to the ground.

The new Boeing 787 (was 7E7) & Airbus A350, due in service in about 5-8 years time might will be able to do it (whether the airlines will actually do this is another story). The current longest distance airliner is the Airbus A340-500. Singapore airlines use it for SIN-LAX nonstop, which I think is the longest nonstop passenger flight.

and I'm sure cabin and flight crew would have something to say about this as well. The only way it could be done is if they had a standby crew on board, which would mean less seats for paying passengers - more wages - not really that cost effective.

Also there is talk of a 'stretched' 747. I expect that this will do it also. Once again it is the obvious route to want to do it on with an ac that will fly the distance.

I would think about 16 hours for the A380. I believe that Virgin are buying some A380s. Once again the sort of route that Branson would want to fly.

RE Airbus A380
I work for Airbus, building the A380 and please don't call it too badly it's going to (hopefully) be paying my pension in future years. It'll be a success, they wouldn't have spent 4-5 billion euros in manufacturing facilities and design. The one downside in my opinion is waiting for your luggage, it's bad enough when there's 200 passengers but 555.

And waiting for check-in, waiting to get on, waiting for immigration. Any unprepared airport will be a nightmare.