# Longest regular non-stop airplane flight. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 25, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881 "2010-11-25T15:43:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![ohiomstr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/82dd89/32.png) [@ohiomstr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ohiomstr2)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/142 "2018-10-17T12:20:12Z")
Explain to me again why we don’t have supersonic airliners anymore. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/143 "2018-10-17T13:09:07Z")
> [@ohiomstr2](#): > > Explain to me again why we don’t have supersonic airliners anymore. 1. Sonic booms cause damage to things on the ground, and so supersonic flight is banned over most civilian areas. A plane that can only be used as intended over oceans is not cost effective. SSTs that don’t cause sonic boom problems and aren’t really small are a significant engineering challenge. 2. They’re really expensive. The number of passengers you can carry versus the purchase and operating cost of a plane that only flies over oceans isn’t worth it. 3. Existing airplanes work extremely well. If they sucked, you’d see more push to fix the problems inherent in SSTs. But in fact they work pretty well. 99% of flights AREN’T London to Sydney - a route for which no SST ever designed has the range form anyway - they’re London to Frankfurt, Denver to Chicago, or Qingdao to Shanghai, and cutting those flights by 45 minutes simply isn’t much or a marginal benefit to stop using the perfectly good airplanes they currently use. ---
**Author:** ![NoSleepTillDeath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a87d85/32.png) [@NoSleepTillDeath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoSleepTillDeath)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/144 "2018-10-17T15:54:52Z")
A SST wouldn’t have anything resembling the range to do those kind of flights. They would have to stop for fuel probably multiple times. Which just makes the trip longer and more expensive. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/145 "2018-10-17T16:18:24Z")
Also, for people who could afford to fly on a supersonic airliner, a private jet is often faster. Not only is it always a direct flight, but you also skip the TSA. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/146 "2020-03-18T15:03:59Z")
Thanks to the Corona virus there’s a new distance record - [Coronavirus travel restrictions lead to a new record for world's longest flight in distance](https://www.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-travel-restrictions-lead-record-131445243.html) ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/147 "2020-03-18T15:15:24Z")
I’ve watched some really neat youtube videos on this sort of thing, but am having trouble finding the exact one I’m thinking of (it covered the longest non-stop flights and mentioned when each record was broken). Check out Wyndover Productions, Real Life Lore and Half as Interesting if you want to take a look - all three cover plane travel quite a lot on their channels. ---
**Author:** ![Philliam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/philliam/32/3011_2.png) [@Philliam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philliam)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/148 "2020-03-18T18:54:27Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > New seats. Ha! Pussies. Nineteen hours is what I used to sit on the regular, non-air-conditioned bus from Bangkok to Mae Hong Son in Thailand. No fancy seats. Just the bench kind, with a slight padding. One time I read afterward about a small earthquake that occurred in the North in the wee hours while the bus was passing through, but the vehicle was jouncing so much, there would have been no way to feel an earthquake. New seats indeed. On that note, try this for a character-builder: A November flight from NAS Whidbey (Oak Harbor, WA) to Beale AFB (near Sacramento, CA). 12 hours in an R4D (military version of the DC-3). An admittedly wonderful aircraft that made up in noise and fuel consumption for what it lacked in speed. 12 hours vibrating in a jump seat on an unheated plane tends to concentrate your thoughts in a remarkable way. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/149 "2020-03-19T01:59:03Z")
> [@](#): > > Airlines have, however, been able to exceed that level of safety. I don’t know about that - in all the history of dirigible flights, there have been only 13 paying passengers that have lost their lives in an accident, all on the Hindenburg. Now they kill them is wholesale lots of 100 - 200 passengers. And nobody bats an eye. ---
**Author:** ![Dana\_Scully](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5daacb/32.png) [@Dana\_Scully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dana_Scully)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/151 "2020-03-19T03:13:23Z")
OMG–being confined on a flying tube for that long, I’d want to kill myself. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/152 "2020-10-20T17:35:29Z")
Latest update on NYC/Singapore - [Singapore Airlines' world's longest flight just got longer | CNN Travel](https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/worlds-longest-flight-singapore-relaunch/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/153 "2020-10-20T23:13:20Z")
> [@Philliam](#): > > A November flight from NAS Whidbey (Oak Harbor, WA) to Beale AFB (near Sacramento, CA). 12 hours in an R4D (military version of the DC-3). An admittedly wonderful aircraft that made up in noise and fuel consumption for what it lacked in speed. 12 hours vibrating in a jump seat That’s about a 14 hour _drive_. How did that bird stay in the air at such a low speed? ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2020, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/154 "2020-10-21T02:30:52Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I really can not see them making that choice. They would lose all the cattle class passengers My mother has flown on a flight like that out of or into Sydney. I can’t remember the details – it might not have been completely empty in economy – but definitely a long-haul business-class flight flown mostly empty down the back to keep the weight down. I’m 6’4". We’ve had threads here where I say ‘my legs don’t fit into the space between the seats, and it’s worse if the seat in front is reclined’, and people respond ‘just lay back if the seat in front is in your face’. It sucks that I’m poor, tall, and have relatives on three continents. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2020, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/155 "2020-10-21T02:32:29Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > That’s about a 14 hour _drive_ . How did that bird stay in the air at such a low speed? On of my friends has memories of flying across the Australian outback, watching the cars overtake them… ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/156 "2020-10-23T13:51:59Z")
> **[The longest flight in the United States is back for the holidays](https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/hawaii-boston-longest-flight-united-states-returns/index.html)** > > Hawaiian Airlines is resuming its 5,095-mile service between Boston and Honolulu. At 11.5 hours, it's the longest domestic flight in the United States For those without a passport you can still spend a lot of time in a metal tube in the sky. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/157 "2020-11-11T13:36:31Z")
So, the flights from Singapore to JFK have restarted, and I think they’ll be switching to Newark shortly. > **[The world's longest flight just quietly touched down in New York. Here's why...](https://www.yahoo.com/news/worlds-longest-flight-just-quietly-211515163.html)** > > The historic first flight was overshadowed by the pandemic and election of a new president. But Singapore Airlines didn't roll out the red carpet either. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2020, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/158 "2020-11-13T04:50:18Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > So, the flights from Singapore to JFK have restarted, and I think they’ll be switching to Newark shortly. I think the cool thing about that is that _it doesn’t matter which route they take_. From point A on the globe to Point B at the opposite point, there is no “long way around” All great-circle routes are the same length! NY and Singapore aren’t actually at opposite points. But it’s close enough so that they fly the other way around if the wind’s right ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2020, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/159 "2020-11-13T13:04:05Z")
The antipode of NYC is several hundred miles off the west coast of Australia; that of Singapore is near Quito, Ecuador. Not really relevant in this case, since the NY-SIN flight would be in the northern hemisphere at all times. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2020, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/160 "2020-11-13T13:21:30Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > On of my friends has memories of flying across the Australian outback, watching the cars overtake them… I almost had that happen on a train when I visited relatives in the San Francisco area and we took the regional train to the city. It shared a path part of the way with a highway, going in the median. The cars in the fast lane would slowly overtake us, only to stop pretty suddenly when they hit traffic. So we were still faster overall. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2020, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/161 "2020-11-14T00:14:06Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > only to stop pretty suddenly when they hit traffic There is no traffic in the Australian outback 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2020, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881/162 "2020-11-14T01:31:26Z")
Other than the occasional kangaroo I’d wager. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-regular-non-stop-airplane-flight/561881.md?page=9)