Qantas Plans Longest Nonstop Flights Between Australia, London and New York
戴恩·泰勒(Daine Taylor)
澳大利亚国旗航空公司澳洲航空公司正准备从澳大利亚东海岸(布里斯班,悉尼和墨尔本)到伦敦和纽约进行常规的,不间断的商业航班。这将是19小时时任何主要航空公司的最长不间断飞行路线。
为此,该航空公司将持有一系列的测试飞行,以观察19小时飞行对人体的影响,这是一家名为“日出计划”的研究风险。
Project Sunrise will be comprised of three ultra-long-haul research flights intended to gather new inflight passenger data, as well as to monitor crew health and well-being.
“超长的飞行飞行提出了许多有关乘客和船员舒适和福祉的常识性问题。这些航班将提供宝贵的数据来帮助回答它们。他还说,这些航班将使医学专家有机会进行实时研究,以转化为健康和福祉。
“为客户,关键是减少时差, and creating an environment where they are looking forward to a restful, enjoyable flight. For crew, it’s about using scientific research to determine the best opportunities to promote alertness when they are on duty and maximize rest during their downtime on these flights,” said Joyce.
这三个航班将在三个月内进行,并将使用新的波音787-9,并重新拆除计划的送货航班。飞机不会从西雅图飞往澳大利亚,而是将模拟两条日出路线 - 伦敦和纽约到悉尼。每次飞行最多将有40人,包括机组人员,以最大程度地减少重量并确保必要的燃油范围。
这将代表从纽约到悉尼的商业航空公司的第一次飞行,这是商业航空公司第二次直接从伦敦飞往悉尼。
“Flying nonstop from the East Coast of Australia to London and New York is truly the final frontier in aviation, so we’re determined to do all the groundwork to get this right,” said Joyce. “No airline has done this kind of dedicated research before and we’ll be using the results to help shape the cabin design, inflight service, and crew roster patterns for Project Sunrise. We’ll also be looking at how we can use it to improve our existing long-haul flights.”
These research passengers will be made up of mostly Qantas employees, and will be fitted with wearable monitoring devices. Scientists and medical experts from the Charles Perkins Centre will monitor sleep patterns, food and beverage consumption, lighting, physical movement, and inflight entertainment to assess the impact on health, well-being and body clock.
莫纳什大学的研究人员还将与飞行员合作,在飞行前,之中和之后记录船员褪黑激素水平。飞行员将戴上脑电图(脑电图)设备,该设备跟踪脑波模式并监视警报。目的是建立数据,以协助建立最佳的工作和REST模式,以实现运营长途服务的飞行员。
测试运行定于10月,11月和12月。尚无关于何时将向公众提供长途路线的消息。