The Australian airline Qantas Airways, after announcing the tests of what would be the longest and nonstop flight, makes it a reality and breaks the world record. On October 20, the first flight test that departed from New York to Sydney was completed and managed to cross 16,000 kilometers and 15 time zones in 20 flight hours.
In this test, 50 passengers participated, including the crew and six volunteers. During the flight, scientists managed to monitor the behavior of travelers, cabin crew and pilots. All were in executive class and also, even the food that was consumed during the flight day was carefully prepared.
Among the studies carried out, it was possible to monitor the alertness, sleep behavior, and basic requirements of cabin crew and pilots. While the effects of jet-lag were studied with emphasis on passengers, where different methods were implemented to minimize this phenomenon, which includes keeping the airplane’s lights on until a certain time, that is, until it gets dark in Australia, perform certain exercises and the strict following of an eating plan. This is the review, El Financiero.
Also, travelers had devices to measure blood pressure and other vital signs, medications for anxiety and sleep. Certain passengers were already monitored previous days and will be monitored for 21 days in total. This represents a challenge for the company, not only because of the permits that must be requested and the workload but what it represents for the health of the crew and passengers.
In this project called “Project Sunrise” the airline works to include direct lines from Australia to London and New York; in turn, he plans to travel with the relevant amount of fuel decreasing the weight of the aircraft. In this way, it would not be necessary to make scales. Qantas Airways expects to start the commercial route by 2022 and this is just the first test of the three stipulated by the project.
Will they manage to overcome all the challenges?
Sources:
https://www.libremercado.com/2019-10-23/vuelo-largo-mundo-efectos-jet-lag-1276646721/
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