The story behind long-haul flights

➡Recently QANTAS flight qf-9 created  history by connecting Australia and Europe by direct flight. It took almost 17 hous and 20 mins to cover this enormous distance.  Previously QANTAS was connecting this route with the super jumbo A380 , but this time they are depending upon their super efficient BOEING 787-9 dreamliner. To fly non-stop over 17hours is not an easy task . you need many things to work properly and correctly to achieve this.Let's get into the past and see how a simple rule changed aviation and how we can fly 17 hours fully non-stop.

The B-787 Dreamliner touching down 

When we go back in history of the commercial aviation , in 1960’s no American  twin engine aeroplanes are allowed to fly anywhere from 60 minutes diversion airport because they believe that if one engine fails the other engine can fly the plane for about an hour. On north-Atlantic routes like new-york's JFK to London's  HEATHROW the planes can not fly directly . Either they fly the uneconomical route or put a quad engine plane over the direct route.

JFK-LHR
direct vs indirect route

This simple rule changed the ways planes built . The manufactures build the quad jets to overcome this rule but these planes were inefficient to fly as the fuel consumption was more .  The B747 of that time can easily carry 400 passengers but it is very hard for the airlines to fill up those seats . so they put these 747 on the super high demand routes.

In order to start flying in a convenient way planes have to be smaller still being legally allowed to fly. That where tri-jets came into play . with three engines the 60 minute regulation was not applicable to this plane and they can easily fly the long-haul routes . So in 1970’s or in 1980’s all the long haul routes are either operated by tri-jets like DC-10 or B-747.

B-747-400

Tri Jet DC-10

As the time passes , the jet age rolled in and the engine failure was not as that of concern . so in 1985 FAA granted permission to TRANS WORLD airline’s twin engine B-767 to fly between Boston and Paris  ,which is 120 minutes away from the diversion airport. This is the brand new FAA certification known as ETOPS(EXTENDED RANGE TWIN ENGINE PERATIONAL PERFORMANCE  STANDARDS).

Trans World B-767

So if the airline wants to fly long-haul routes they have to buy  a plane with ETOPS type rating. For example the b-767 ,which was the first to get ETOPS certificate , have a type rating of 180 minutes, meaning  it can fly anywhere as long as it is within 180 minutes from a diversion airport.

Now due to solid engine reliability well designed recovery plans , the airplanes can get some insane ETOPS type rating. The 787 dreamliner which is flying from Perth to London nonstop have a type rating of 330 minutes. That means it can fly 5 and half hours from any diversion airports .

Now let’s talk about other planes which have some insane type rating . Those long haul routes which was impossible for the airlines to make money , now can easily be possible with these planes. With this airlines can fly their small planes over the long routes which have low demand.Airbus A350 has a type rating of 370 minutes that means it can fly 6 hours and 10 minutes from any diversion airports, so this plan can travel anywhere in the world apart from directly over the south pole.

AIRBUS A 350-1000

On transatlantic routes , AIR CANADA fly their tiny A319 from st-john’s airport to London Heathrow. BRITISH AIRWAYS fly even the smaller A318 between new-york and London city airport.

BRITISH AIRWAYS A318

AIR CANADA A-319

The liability of the aeroplanes have increased significantly. So we do not need to fear to fly small planes over bigger oceans. Statistically for a failure of jet engine there are 117 piston engine failures. That's the power and reliability of jet engines and that is the main reason for less number of accidents.

We have came a long way and now we have the power to fly non-stop commercially with passengers for 17 and half hours or even more.

                                                          AMIT PARIDA