Air India creates record by flying 15,300 kilometres in 14.5 hours non stop | Hacker News Reader

Air India creates record by flying 15,300 kilometres in 14.5 hours non stop

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22 pointspraving521 comments

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Earlier discussion (not on the record, but the route): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12738077

Key takeaways:

- This is a new route (started in Dec 2015)

- AI recently got permissions to use the Chinese Air Space for the route

- The jetstream optimisations are a service provided by Boeing, and AI just started subscribing to them.

There used to be a nonstop Thai Airways 17 hour flight from NYC to Bangkok that I flew several times. And I found a list from 2007 of longhauls with it listed in the middle! I remember the flight would go over the Arctic, since the distance was shorter, and I could see ice instead of clouds on a clear day. The flight itself would have been unbearable were it not for the amazing Thai airways service. A quick Google shows the distance just under 14000 km.

https://consumerist.com/2007/07/16/worlds-longest-non-stop-f...

Note that this is a record for passenger service. Boeing flew a 777 without passengers for 22:42 and a distance of 21,601 km.

http://boeing.mediaroom.com/2005-11-10-Boeing-777-200LR-Sets...

My god I would not want to be stuck down in economy for that flight.

"Our in-flight entertainment today will be Garfield 2 and Garden State"

So the speed on that flight would be 951 km/hr. Wikipedia article states the max speed for 777 is 950 km/hr. In this AI flight plan, the speed is 1055 km/hr. A new speed record in its own right.

Maximum aircraft speed is airspeed not ground speed.

1055 km/h is far from a ground-speed record for airliners. North Pacific tailwinds can push them over 1200 .

It's not even a record for a passenger service, Singapore Airlines Changi to Newark service was slightly longer. They're going to be reintroducing that service when they get their A350-900ULR aircraft delivered.

Was that the legendary flight that was entirely business class? It was long enough that everyone could get hammered and then sleep off the hangover.

Sweet AI turning a profit ? I must've been a dove-eyed kid when that last happened.

Won't they have to fly back over the Atlantic from SFO, though ?

Also, if the AI boffins are listening:

- "एअर् " -> "अय्र्" ( एचोऽयवायावः ). पदे नित्या संहिताम् करवामहै !

- Please don't make us change over in Delhi! Not all of us wish to honor Herr Gandhi, nor step onto the land of the Mughal-British retainers.

- Mumbai too sucks balls; one wrong call and a taxi man outside the airport steals $100!

- More importantly: South India has all the software man!

  BLR-SFO flight would've made a lot more sense. Seriously, what was AI thinking ? That India's bureaucracy would transform Silicon Valley, by teaching them the dark arts ?

vAyubhArata: iti nAmam sundarataram |

अपि "हंसध्वज" वा "जटायु"।

परन्तु असम्भवम् आङ्लराज्ये परिवर्तनम् । :(

Pardon my naiveté, but, why didn't anyone do this before? Isn't it easier to fly if you take less time because you have tailwinds?

It's done routinely, but Air India just started to do this on a long-haul route and are publicizing it.

For example, over the Atlantic, there is a highly formalized system for this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Tracks#Route_pl...:

"these routes […] are aligned in such a way as to minimize any head winds and maximize tail winds impact on the aircraft. This results in much more efficiency by reducing fuel burn and flight time. To make such efficiencies possible, the routes are created twice daily to take account of the shifting of the winds"

Reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Tracks#History system, that system's history goes back to 1898 (for shipping), but it definitely became structured starting in 1965. So yes, the idea isn't new.

All sorts of faster distance opportunities exist.

one of the safety regulations relies on close landing strips within 300mi of any plane or something like that. God, wish I could find the article on that....

It's less about distance, and more about time (i.e. how long the plane can fly with an engine out).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS

According to the comment above, they only just got permission to start flying in China air space.

What aircraft? Triple 7?

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AIC173/history/20161015/2...

777-200LR, looks like.

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