The German Air Force has been putting its new Airbus A350, registered 10+03, to the test on an ultra-long-haul flight from Germany to Australia.
The flight clocked in at 19 hours and 13 minutes, rivalling Quanta’s non-stop London to Sydney service done over a year ago. The Airbus A350-900 is known for operating the world’s longest regular commercial flight of 18hours 40 minutes flown by Singapore Airlines from New York from Singapore.
Flight details
Typically a flight as long as this would attract much media attention, but this ultra-long-flight has so far flown under the radar, despite cruising at 41,000 feet. At 12:21 on Friday 20th November, 10+03 departed from Cologne Airport in the west of Germany.
The aircraft flew over Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, China, The Philippines, and Indonesia before arriving in Australian airspace. While flying abeam Sydney, the aircraft started its descent from 41,000 feet at 17:07 AEDT. Around half an hour later, at 17:34 on November 21st, 10+03 touched down in the Australian capital after 19 hours and 13 minutes in the air. The hop from Cologne to Canberra is 8,930 nautical miles as the crow flies.
On Sunday, The aircraft is took a slightly more leisurely flight back to Germany the aircraft flew for around six and a half hours to Papeete, French Polynesia’s capital. The aircraft then departed Papeete at 10:02 THAT, flying north-east of Scotland. As the flight from Papeete to Paris took 16 hours and 49 minutes with an Airbus A350, one would assume that the trip from Papeete to Cologne didn’t take quite as long as the trip down to Canberra.
Why?
Once fully commissioned, it will be used to ferry German VIPs such as Angela Merkel and the German head of state worldwide. 10+03, along with two other A350’s will replace the country’s aging A340 that has been less than reliable as of late. These long-haul flights will form part of the German Air Force’s test program for the aircraft before it enters service. It will allow them to iron out any little kinks before VIPs step foot on the aircraft.
