Did the return flight from Melbourne to Toulouse go "the long way around" by flying over the Pacific and Atlantic instead of the shorter westward route just for test purposes?
> The flight from Melbourne back to Toulouse covered 12,460 nautical miles in total, according to Airbus.
> To handle such ultra long-range flights, Airbus describes the aircraft as being equipped with an extra rear center fuel tank capable of carrying 20,900 liters (5,521 gallons). That extends the aircraft range by 1,000 nautical miles to ensure it can cover the nearly 10,000 nautical miles for the nonstop flights between Sydney and either London or New York.
How did they bridge the gap of 2460 nautical miles?
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[ 1.1 ms ] story [ 13.5 ms ] thread> To handle such ultra long-range flights, Airbus describes the aircraft as being equipped with an extra rear center fuel tank capable of carrying 20,900 liters (5,521 gallons). That extends the aircraft range by 1,000 nautical miles to ensure it can cover the nearly 10,000 nautical miles for the nonstop flights between Sydney and either London or New York.
How did they bridge the gap of 2460 nautical miles?
Therefore it’s not unreasonable that a several hundred mph wind would close the gap.