Thursday, November 10, 2005

Boeing jet goes the distance

LONDON -- It was the mother of all red-eye flights.

Hong Kong to London the hard way, eastbound with the winds. Nonstop across two oceans and North America -- more than half way around the world.

By the time the wheels of the Boeing jet touched down at London's Heathrow airport at 1:18 p.m. local time Thursday, it had set a distance record of 11,664 nautical miles. Flight time was 22 hours, 42 minutes.

That's more than half-way around the world or, measured on the same scale your car's odometer uses -- 13,422 statute miles or 21,601 kilometers.

Since the dawn of the jet age more than a half century ago, no jetliner had ever flown as far nonstop without refueling.

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