AUSTRALIA’S flag carrier Qantas completed Sunday a nonstop test flight from New York to Sydney, researching how the world’s longest potential commercial airplane journey of nearly 20 hours would impact pilots, crew and passengers.

Carrying 50 passengers and crew on board, Qantas Flight 7879 on a new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner touched down in Sydney on Sunday morning after a 16,200-kilometer journey, which lasted 19 hours 16 minutes.

“This is a really historic moment for Qantas, a really historic moment for Australian aviation and a really historic moment for world aviation,” Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce, who took the flight, said after landing.

With demand for air travel rapidly growing and aircraft performance improving, carriers are increasingly looking into ultra-long-haul travel. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects the worldwide number of annual passengers to grow from 4.6 billion this year to 8.2 billion by 2037.

No commercial aircraft as of yet has the range to fly such an ultra-long haul with a full passenger and cargo load. To give the plane the needed range, the Qantas flight took off with maximum fuel, only a few passengers, restricted baggage load and no cargo.

The goal was to gather data, with a team of researchers to monitor, among other things, lighting, activity, sleep and consumption patterns of passengers, and crew melatonin levels.

They also tracked the brain wave patterns of pilots, equipped for the flight with brain monitoring devices.

The aim of the research was, Qantas said in a statement, to increase health and wellness, minimize jet lag and identify optimum crew rest and work periods.

“The flight was very successful from two components — the first one was research,” Qantas captain Sean Golding said.

“And also the feat of distance — that flight last night was 16,200 kilometers. We were airborne for 19 hours and 16 minutes, and we landed here in Sydney with a comfortable 70 minutes of fuel.”

The airline also plans to test a nonstop flight from London to Sydney and expects to make a decision by the end of the year whether to start the routes, which will commence in 2022 or 2023.(SD-Agencies)

A hoaxer duped Booker Prize-winning author John Banville into thinking he’d won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The Wexford writer received the call Thursday - just half an hour before the ceremony in Stockholm - telling him he was one of two winners.

Banville, who spent 45 minutes thinking he’d won the prestigious award, said in an interview: “I believed it. The call came from Stockholm, why would I not believe it?”

After the real winners were announced, a man claiming to be Swedish Academy secretary Mats Malm, called Banville back and left him a voicemail to tell him his award was being withdrawn.

He added: “I was disappointed of course. When you are phoned up and told you got the Nobel Prize you are not thinking straight.”

The Swedish Academy has denied any involvement.

Writer John Banville has said that “for about 40 minutes I was a Nobel Prize winner” as he discussed the hoax call he received from the Stockholm Academy telling him he had won the coveted award.

Speaking on RTé’s Marian Finucane programme, Mr

Banville said he believes he was not the target of the cruel hoax but instead was “collateral damage” for someone with a grudge against the academy.

(SD-Agencies)