QANTAS: Project Sunrise A350 reaches Melbourne, Australia after 19-hour test flight

Qantas’ Project Sunrise aircraft has touched Australian soil for the first time, completing a marathon non-stop test flight from Toulouse to Melbourne. Not to mention the ongoing, nearly 10-year marathon of non-stop PR campaign (project named in 2017) Qantas has been running about this initiative!

The specially modified Airbus A350-1000ULR landed at Melbourne Airport at about 10.46 am on Friday, 24 July, after spending 19 hours and 13 minutes in the air. The aircraft covered almost 17,000 kilometres, attracting more than 67,000 viewers on Flightradar24 and becoming the flight-tracking service’s most-watched aircraft globally. But not by me.

It is another step towards the Project Sunrise surnise commercial flights. Qantas’ long-promised plan to connect Sydney directly with London and New York. The first commercial Sydney–London service is scheduled for October 2027, with tickets expected to go on sale in February 2027.

This is a flying laboratory

Despite the excitement around its arrival, this is not yet the finished Qantas aircraft passengers will board.

This is Airbus production aircraft MSN707, currently registered F-WULR. It is wearing a rather fetching beige test-aircraft finish rather than the full Flying Kangaroo livery. Inside, there are engineers, instrumentation racks, orange cables and heat-generating passenger substitutes rather than First Class suites and Premium Economy recliners.

Airbus has installed around five tonnes of monitoring equipment and more than 1,000 sensors throughout the aircraft. These collect data on fuel flow, pressure, temperatures, structural loads, ventilation and cooling during the certification campaign. Remember this is essentially a test aircraft.

Four Airbus test pilots and five flight-test engineers operated the flight to Melbourne. The aircraft will remain in Australia over the weekend before returning to Toulouse on Monday, 27 July. Two Qantas pilots will join the Airbus crew for the return journey.

The extra tank is the main event

The A350-1000ULR has been created specifically for Qantas and Project Sunrise.

Its most important modification is an additional 20,000-litre rear-centre fuel tank, supported by a redesigned fuel-management system. The extra capacity extends the aircraft’s range to almost 10,000 nautical miles, or around 18,500 kilometres.

Airbus is also testing a new galley-cooling arrangement and the aircraft’s ventilation systems. These modifications must be certified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency before Qantas can place the aircraft into commercial service.

Vega will be the first delivered

The aircraft visiting Melbourne will eventually be converted into a passenger aircraft, but it will not be the first Project Sunrise jet handed to Qantas.

That honour belongs to Vega, which is progressing through Airbus’ final assembly line in Toulouse wearing the full Qantas livery. Its delivery is expected in April 2027, several months later than Qantas had previously planned.

The delay has pushed the start of Sydney–London services to October 2027. Qantas says it will have three A350s available when daily London operations begin. Before then, the airline intends to use its early aircraft for crew training, including short Sydney–Melbourne sectors and potential passenger flights to Auckland and Los Angeles.

2PAXfly Takeout

Seeing an A350-1000ULR arrive in Australia makes Project Sunrise feel slightly less like an endlessly delayed dream and forever ongoing public relations story.

Still, this was an engineering exercise rather than a preview of the finished passenger experience. There were no suites, meals, mood lighting or passengers attempting to remain civil after 19 hours in economy.

The aircraft has demonstrated that it can reach Australia from Toulouse. The more interesting test will come later when passengers, whether paying or guests, get to fly in the aircraft – even on short haul, let alone ultra long haul.