Halted! Boeing's Contender For ‘Sunrise'

It is well known that Airbus and Boeing have been competing to build the world’s longest-range aircraft.

Currently, the world’s longest-range aircraft is Airbus’ A350-900ULR. This plane is exclusively operated by Singapore Airlines, on its Singapore to Newark, Los Angeles, and San Francisco routes. However, the ambition of some airlines demands more than the 9,500+ mile range offered by that plane. The best example is that of Qantas which is planning to launch nonstop flights from Melbourne and Sydney to London and New York, under the all exciting “Project Sunrise”. Qantas’ desired nonstop flights from Australia to London and New York would cover a distance of 9,950 -10,573 miles, so they would need to have a higher range than the A350-900ULR, especially if they require a denser configuration. Singapore Airlines’ A350-900ULRs has only 161 seats, with Business Class and Premium Economy, and no Economy. This greatly limits the weight of the plane as well as the fuel burn. The presumption is that Boeing would be building a modified version of the 777X to offer competition. However, Boeing decided to delay the development of the smaller variant of the new 777X series, the 777-8. This decision came shortly after Airbus, in stiff competition to Boeing, confirmed in June that it had built a plane that was capable of meeting Qantas’ needs, though they didn’t provide more details.