I’ve just endured the world’s newest, longest flight, a 10,100-mile nonstop ultra-marathon from New York to Sydney. It took about 19 and a half hours, and was almost as demanding as that sounds.
The record-breaking Qantas Airways Ltd. flight touched down early morning on Oct. 20 in Australia. The Boeing Co. Dreamliner delivered its few dozen passengers—including yours truly—to their destination more or less intact, even if some of us were not quite sure what day it was.
Qantas wants to begin flying the time-saving route commercially as soon as 2022, so the airline used this test trip to explore ways to reduce its inevitable downside: soul-crushing, body-buckling jet lag. Here’s how my journey unfolded in real time.
