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Crew beside the inter-continental ultra-long-haul test flights of Qantas’ first Airbus A350-1000ULR. (Airbus)
Traffic #402 | Project Sunrise, WSI, US Coast Guard
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Mammoth Project Sunrise flight tests take-off
Qantas’ long-awaited and ambitious Project Sunrise ultra-long-haul operation has celebrated several gigantic milestones in the last three months, ahead of its now-on-schedule launch in October 2027. The first heavily modified and custom-designed Airbus A350-1000ULR has been rolled out of the planemaker’s Toulouse factory and has begun extensive flight testing, including several transglobal hops. To catch you up to speed, let’s talk about what makes the A350-1000ULR plane and its twin Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines so special. The plane, which already benefits from all of Airbus’ latest A350 technology, has been specially modified for the Project Sunrise program to include an additional 20,900-litre fuel tank, dubbed the rear central tank (RCT) in the belly of the aircraft, giving it the vital additional range it needs to connect Australia to any major city on the globe.
Qantas made international headlines in July after successfully completing its first record-breaking test flight from Melbourne to Toulouse, France, in 24 hours and 24 minutes. The aircraft, which bears the test registration F-WULR, is yet to be registered in Australia with a VH callsign. F-WULR took off from Melbourne Tullamarine International at 5:27pm on 27 July and headed east for Europe – yes, the long way around – passing through the US and Canada on its mammoth journey. The jet touched down at its destination at 9:51am local time on 28 July after an initial missed approach and go-around, though this is thought to have been an intentional move, or “victory lap” to show off the plane’s exceptional range and capability, or perhaps a bid to push the flight time to the symmetrical 24 hours and 24 minutes.
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