World’s first 20-hour, non-stop airline flight to test humans’ limits

Qantas Airlines’ trial of non-stop New York to Sydney flight puts a new focus on the physical toll of an ultra-long-haul journey and how to combat it

The airline’s new Boeing Dreamliner will be turned into a high-altitude laboratory for the trip

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Insights into the physical and emotional toll of ultra-long-haul travel should emerge this weekend when Qantas flies the world’s first 20-hour, non-stop flight from New York to Sydney. Photo: Seattle Times via TNS

Published: 12:45pm, 16 Oct 2019Updated: 2:01am, 17 Oct 2019

For decades, travellers have stoically endured jet lag as an unavoidable menace on long journeys.

Now, as airlines push for record-breaking non-stop flights halfway around the planet, efforts to counter the debilitating symptoms are turning into a billion-dollar industry.

Fresh insight into the physical and emotional toll of ultra-long-haul travel should emerge this weekend when Qantas Airlines flies direct from New York to Sydney. No airline has ever completed that route without stopping. At nearly 20 hours, it’s set to be the world’s longest flight, leaving the US on Friday and landing in Australia during its Sunday morning.

This will be more than an endurance exercise. Scientists and medical researchers in the cabin will turn Qantas’ brand-new Boeing Dreamliner into a high-altitude laboratory. They’ll screen the brains of the pilots for alertness, while monitoring the food, sleep and activity of the few dozen passengers. The aim is to see how humans hold up to the ordeal.

Scientists and medical researchers in the cabin will turn Qantas’ brand-new Boeing Dreamliner into a laboratory. Photo: Alamy

The proliferation of super-long flights – Singapore Airlines, for example, resumed non-stop services to New York last year – is partly driven by the development of lighter, more aerodynamic aircraft that can fly further.

World’s first 20-hour, non-stop airline flight to test humans’ limits

Qantas Airlines’ trial of non-stop New York to Sydney flight puts a new focus on the physical toll of an ultra-long-haul journey and how to combat it The airline’s new Boeing Dreamliner will be turned into a high-altitude laboratory for the trip

Qantas Airlines’ trial of non-stop New York to Sydney flight puts a new focus on the physical toll of an ultra-long-haul journey and how to combat it

The airline’s new Boeing Dreamliner will be turned into a high-altitude laboratory for the trip