When Boeing brought the 777-200LR to market, it needed a way to show the world that its range… //

On November 9th, 2005, Boeing decided to fly a Boeing 777-200LR demonstration model the ‘wrong-way’ around the world from Hong Kong to London to show off its range. Usually, aircraft would fly north-west, passing over China, Russia, and Northern Europe to London.

But this flight would take it over the Pacific, over North America, and then over the Atlantic. The plane passed over Los Angeles, skirted Chicago, buzzed New York before joining other transatlantic traffic.

The plane experienced turbulence over the Pacific, “But we had a great ride across the United States … and across the Atlantic, we saw our second sunrise of the trip,” Captain Suzanna Darcy-Hennemann said to Seattle Times.

The plane flew for 22 hours and 43 minutes, passing over the international dateline and saw two sunrises as it went the opposite way to the sun. To fly non-stop for so long, the aircraft had nine pilots and 27 others on board. Boeing allocated only 18kg to each passenger and crew, including cameras and laptops (which were big and heavy 15 years ago). The rest of the aircraft’s weight went to the 164 tons of fuel onboard. //

Upon landing, Boeing completed the record for the world’s longest flight by the Guinness Book of Records.