https://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/travel/are-we-there-yet-qantas-s-20-hour-flight-from-new-york-to-sydney-sets-off-1.925483 New York to Sydney flight facts - You can watch all eight Harry Potter films during the flight, as they last 19 hours and 39 minutes - Four pilots will be on rotation throughout the flight. Two additional pilots will be in the cabin, having flown the aircraft to New York - Projected fuel remaining upon landing is approximately 6,000 kilograms, which translates to about 90 minutes of flight-time - Nearly half of the aircraft weight on take-off is fuel - Cruising altitude will start at 36,000 feet for the first few hours and then, as the aircraft weight reduces with fuel burn, the cruising altitude will increase to 40,000 feet
I can barely make it 4 hours of flying now the older I get. I did 17+ hours non-stop once when I was a kid and never again.
We have kids in Portland, Or. and we always take the train now. Comfortable seats, beautiful scenery, can get up and walk around, and the food in the "dinning car" is good enough for the five hour trip. We always arrive fresh and rested. The only complaint is the flat-spotted wheels sometimes and the restrooms aren't up to par occasionally.
I did the Australia flight from the uk on Christmas Day once, stopped in Singapore. We had turkey and cranberry 5 times on the journey. I don’t every want that again! 23 hours total in the air front the UK. Now i stop in Dubai for a couple of days there and back, much more civilised!
Would be a really huge aircraft and likely need to be at Mach 3 to make it work. The Mach 1.5-2.5 region is just too fuel inefficient and rough on airframes (high Q loads). Just thinking of 20 hours makes my back hurt.
Q Loads. Terry, you made me think of the Q Bellows on the early Boeing airplanes, KC -135, 707. There is a horizontal mast in the leading edge near the base of the vertical tail. It ingested air to put pressure on the bellows to give artificial feel to hydraulically boosted controls. Higher the speed, the higher inputs on the controls. Q Dynamic pressure.
Having been there five weeks ago, I concur: I found Oregon a really beautiful place. Three (not so good) pics taken from the train ("Coast starlight") from Seattle to San Francisco. Rgds Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I like taking the train on day trips, but I can't sleep in a coach seat. A couple of years ago I stumbled onto a sale on roomette seats on the Crescent between Philadelphia and Atlanta and had a much better night sleeping. But usually compartments are too expensive for my taste.
Well Jim, I wanted to see at least a bit of the american landscape, so I flew from Paris to Chicago, spent two days there, then took the "Empire Builder" from Chicago to Seattle; rested a day in Seattle, then took the "Coast Starlight" from Seattle to San Francisco; rested two days there, and then took the "California Zephyr" from San Francisco back to Chicago. And flew home. All the trip in a compartment. I'm very happy to have done this; saw wonderful landscape, met a lot of people and Amtrak didn't miss a beat and was right on time. The ride was slightly (slightly, but not more) rough sometimes, as these tracks have seen a lot of services. All in all, a very enjoyable experience through the United States. Rgds
You got very lucky that the trains were on time; that is quite rare, since these trains are actually run by the freight railroads that own the tracks, and freight trains usually get priority. I once took a "trip to nowhere" out of Seattle, on the weekend of June with the most daylight. South on the Coast Starlight to Portland, then eastbound on the Empire Builder (through the Columbia River gorge!) to Spokane, then back to Seattle on the other leg ot the Empire Builder. That last train arrived about 2 hours late, causing me to have to get some sleep on a bench in the Spokane station in the wee hours of the morning. But the scenery was great and I enjoyed the trip, which took about 24 hours.
