Posted 11/10/2005 05:50:00 PM by Douglas

Suck on this, Airbus:

A Boeing Co. jet arrived in London from Hong Kong on Thursday, breaking the record for the longest nonstop flight by a commercial jet. The 777-200LR Worldliner — one of Boeing's newest planes — touched down shortly after 1 p.m. (8 a.m. EST) at London's Heathrow Airport after a journey of more than 13,422 miles. The previous record was set when a Boeing 747-400 flew 10,500 miles from London to Sydney in 1989.

"With the 777-200LR, we are changing the world," he said. "Passengers can fly commercially between just about any two cities nonstop."

The jet spent 22 hours and 43 minutes in the air.

Wow, 23 hours in the air. I'll bet the passengers were really tired of watching whatever Will Smith movie that was playing on a continuous loop.

"With the 777-200LR, we are changing the world," he said. "Passengers can fly commercially between just about any two cities nonstop."

Well, if the circumference of the earth is 24,901 miles, then a journey of 12,450 miles in any straight line will get you to the farthest location from your starting point. That is, until you start getting closer again. So with a 13,422 mile range, the 7³ can literally get you to the other side of the world, and with one tank of kerosene.

"With the 777-200LR, we are changing the world," he said. "Passengers can fly commercially between just about any two cities nonstop."

Boeing said that after leaving Hong Kong, the jet flew across the northern Pacific Ocean before reaching North America, where it flew over Los Angeles, then slightly south of Chicago and over New York before cruising over the Atlantic Ocean to London. Hong Kong-London flights usually fly over Russia.

The world just got a lot smaller. And through the ventures of a private American corporation, not through collusion of socialist European conglomerates.