JFK-SYD Nonstop! Delta Asks Boeing for 772LR Range Boost

[Matt Molnar]

Flight Global:

Delta pushes Boeing to squeeze more range from 777-200LR
By David Field

Delta Air Lines wants Boeing to examine ways of boosting the 777-200LR's range to enable the airline to serve Australia directly from the US East Coast.

The Boeing twinjet is already the world's longest-range airliner, with the capability of flying missions of up to 17,500km (9,450nm), and Delta executive vice-president for network planning and revenue management Glenn Hauenstein says the airline has informally asked the airframer to study possible modifications to allow even longer-range, full-payload performance. [Full Article]

[T-Bird76]

The issue Delta needs to keep in mind is do people want to be on a plane that long? I for one would not want to be locked in a coach cabin in a 3x3x3 config for that long. Even F class is pushing the limits.

[Midnight Mike]

The issue Delta needs to keep in mind is do people want to be on a plane that long? I for one would not want to be locked in a coach cabin in a 3x3x3 config for that long. Even F class is pushing the limits.

And then airlines wonder why people do not like to travel.

http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Delta_ ... -200_B.php

Economy Class: 31.0" 18.0" 218 seats with very little recline
Delta recently outfitted BusinessElite with AC power. Delta is also adding two AC power ports to every three seats in economy.

I can not imagine the last row of seats that do not recline :x Better overdose on sleeping meds :mrgreen:

[Matt Molnar]

[Ari707]

that flight would be pushing 20 hrs at least,,

[adam613]

Maybe they should take some seats out and make a lounge or something so that the pax have a place to get up and walk around. That might decrease the weight enough to give them the 10000 (!) nm range they'd need for JFK-SYD. I suspect there would be some demand for a flight like this...even if the flight itself is 20 hours, that's still faster than having to change planes in LAX or NRT.

[Idlewild]

While the range might be there on paper what about flying west bound? Don't aircraft flying westbound fight headwinds? Doesn't that lessen true range? I wonder if that would be the case if it had a higher operating ceiling. Say 50,000+ ft.

[mirrodie]

Having been there twice, I could stomach the nonstop if I knew how long the flight would actually be.

[Delta777LR]

I wouldnt think people would really want to be on a flight longer than 18 hrs compare to Singapores A345 flight from EWR-SIN which I believe is either an 18 or 19hr flight nonstop.

[adam613]

While the range might be there on paper what about flying west bound? Don't aircraft flying westbound fight headwinds? Doesn't that lessen true range?

I was actually kind of wondering about that...do you ever NEED to fly westbound on a flight that long? It looks JFK-SYD is only about 1000 miles longer if you fly east than it is if you fly west...over that distance, wouldn't you do better to fly east (with a tailwind) in both directions?

[PhilDernerJr]

Excellent question. I wish we had a 772LR dispatcher here.