Sunrise: Projecting?

A PR coup, but will it fly — and on what?

Nineteen hours and sixteen minutes. On the face of it, the first commercial nonstop airline flight from New York to Sydney is a monumental achievement, even if one notes the load of just forty passengers onboard flight QF7879, on Boeing 787-9 VH-ZNI, Kookaburra.

Indeed, it’s only thirty-five minutes more than the world’s current longest flight has taken over the last couple of months. According to data from flight tracking site FlightRadar24, Singapore Airlines’ flight SQ21 — scheduled for took 18 hours and 41 minutes to wend its way from Newark to Changi on 28 August.