{"id":17792,"date":"2018-10-09T18:22:55","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T18:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=17792"},"modified":"2018-10-09T18:22:55","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T18:22:55","slug":"worlds-longest-flight-ready-for-takeoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=17792","title":{"rendered":"World’s longest flight ready for takeoff"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nEditor’s Note \u2014 CNN’s Richard Quest will be reporting live from the inaugural flight of Singapore Airlines’ Singapore to New York service on October 11-12. Follow his progress on
\ncnn.com\/travel<\/a> and
\nCNN Travel’s Twitter feed.<\/a> Coverage begins shortly before take off at 11:35 ET | 16:35 London | 23:35 Singapore\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Starting October 11, 2018, passengers on Singapore Airlines’ newest plane, the Airbus A350-900 ULR — for Ultra Long-Range — will travel on a record-breaking, globe-spanning flight that will reconnect the two major metropolises.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new flights will initially run three times a week from Singapore to Newark Liberty International Airport, with daily operations starting October 18 after a second Airbus A350-900 enters service. <\/span><\/p>\n

On September 22, the airline took delivery of Airbus’ newest wide-body, the A350-900 ULR. It has 22 A350-900 planes in its fleet, with 45 more on order, including six more of the ULRs. <\/span><\/p>\n

On April 23, the plane had its first test flight, an almost five-hour round-trip that launched from the airframer’s assembly plant in Toulouse, France.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ULR will be able to fly a remarkable 11,160 miles, an increase of more than 1,800 miles over the standard A350. It means that Singapore Airlines will reclaim a travel<\/a> crown: that of running the world’s longest nonstop air route. <\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Day in the air<\/h3>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But how will passengers comfortably fly — or perhaps endure — a flight that lasts the better part of a full day?<\/span><\/p>\n

“The A350 is a clean-sheet design that has been designed for those long-range flights,” Florent Petteni, Airbus’ aircraft interiors marketing director for the A350, tells CNN Travel.<\/span><\/p>\n

All A350s share Airbus’ design philosophy that makes the aircraft cabin feel more like a room, rather than a long tube. The plane has high ceilings, sophisticated LED lighting, almost vertical sidewalls and a low noise level. <\/span><\/p>\n

These features, along with a maximum in-cabin simulated altitude of just 6,000 feet, all combine to provide an improved passenger experience, according to Petteni.<\/span><\/p>\n

“You may not exactly pinpoint why it’s so comfortable and so nice to be flying on this airplane, but everything was done on purpose.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Like the windows.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A room with a view<\/h3>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
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CNN’s Richard Quest flies on the world’s longest commercial flight, Qatar Airways’ new route between Doha, Qatar and Auckland, New Zealand <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The A350’s fuselage is made from composite materials, including carbon fiber — rather than using conventional aluminum construction techniques. This allowed Airbus to include wide, panoramic windows. Lots of windows.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We have no missing windows. Whenever a passenger selects a window seat, they will always get a window,” says Petteni. This eliminates the dreaded “windowless” window seat found on other aircraft.<\/span><\/p>\n

But given the ultra long-range mission of the ULR, it was equally important to ensure that the cabin can be made fully dark, to give passengers a restful sleep environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Airlines will have the choice between a standard pull-down shade, or an electro-mechanical, push-button system, with two cabin-darkening blinds.<\/span><\/p>\n

The air circulation system on the A350 has also been designed to be quiet and draft-free.<\/span><\/p>\n

“So even though we recycle the air in the full capacity of the cabin every two to three minutes, we do it in a way that we reduce the velocity of the air inside the cabin,” says Petteni.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fill ‘er up<\/h3>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Compared to the standard A350-900, the ULR will haul an additional 24,000 liters of fuel to fly its 20-hour missions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Along with the stretch A350-1000, the family of planes shares basically the same wing structure. That structure includes a common-sized center fuel tank.<\/span><\/p>\n

“All that we are doing on the ULR is to use all of the volume that we have in the center tank, a bit more than the usage that we have for the -1000,” explains Marisa Lucas-Ugena, head of A350 marketing.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We put in additional pipes and drains so that we can get usage of the entire volume. For the [standard] -900 we’re not using the entire space that we have.”<\/span><\/p>\n

That additional fuel weighs about an extra 20,000 pounds. And just like any other aircraft, the ULR’s operators will have to trade on the payload\/range equation.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you want to fly far, you must carry more fuel. That fuel adds more weight, so you must then reduce the rest of the payload. <\/span><\/p>\n

A manufacturer could increase the maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of the plane, the airline could limit the number of passengers or amount of cargo carried, or there could be a combination of both.<\/span><\/p>\n

Airbus has upped the ULR’s MTOW to 280 tons, five tons more than the standard airframe.<\/span><\/p>\n

The interior configuration<\/a> of Singapore Airlines’ ULRs features 67 business class seats and 94 premium economy seats. <\/span><\/div>\n

As expected, there are far fewer than the 253 seats in the airline’s standard A350-900s.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to the fuel system changes, the ULR sports a host of aerodynamic updates, include longer version of the A350’s elegant winglets.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Call of nature <\/h3>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

No matter the number of people on board, Airbus feels sure that the ULR’s lavatory and water systems are up to the challenge of a 20-hour flight.<\/span><\/p>\n

“There are no changes to the capacities, just optimization,” explains Lucas-Ugena. “That’s something that we do at Airbus, when we have a family of airplanes, any time we have a new type or a new modification, we take the opportunity to improve things.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps another Airbus concept will find its way into the ULR. <\/span><\/p>\n

At the Aircraft Interior Expo in Hamburg earlier this year, the company, along with aircraft interiors manufacturer Zodiac Aerospace, unveiled a proposal for “Lower Deck Modules” that would feature sleeping quarters for passengers<\/a>. <\/span><\/div>\n

Located in the space normally filled with cargo containers, passengers would access bunk beds via a stairway from the main deck.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet dreams. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note \u2014 CNN’s Richard Quest will be reporting live from the inaugural flight of Singapore Airlines’ Singapore to New York service on October 11-12. Follow his progress on cnn.com\/travel and CNN Travel’s Twitter feed. Coverage begins shortly before take off at 11:35 ET | 16:35 London | 23:35 Singapore Starting October 11, 2018, passengers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":17793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}