An Airbus A350-1000ULR this week spent more than 24 hours in the air on a nonstop flight from Melbourne, Australia, to Toulouse, France, setting unofficial records for distance and endurance by a commercial airliner.
Airbus said Tuesday morning that the ultra-long-range A350-1000 variant landed in Toulouse after a 24-hour, 24-minute eastbound journey spanning 12,460 nm, or more than 23,000 km. The widebody airliner flew the “wrong way” from Australia rather than the shorter westbound route it took last week from Toulouse to Melbourne, which covered about 9,120 nm in around 19 hours and 12 minutes.
