Free Republic

A new long-range airliner soared high over California on Monday before finally touching down in France on Tuesday morning after flying for more than 24 hours straight from Australia, Qantas Airways announced. Built for the carrier’s Project Sunrise, the cutting-edge Airbus A350-1000 is designed to fly passengers nonstop from the east coast of Australia to London and New York — a “world first,” according to the company. Per public flight records, the aircraft departed from Melbourne at 5:30 p.m. on Monday and passed directly over Los Angeles and Las Vegas on Monday afternoon after crossing the international date line. It...

Wild video shows a wheel falling off a British Airways flight just after it took off from a Las Vegas airport. Flight BA274 had just taken off from Harry Reid International Airport en route to the UK at around 8:45 p.m. Monday when sparks could be seen flying out of the right landing gear. As the plane started to ascend, it retracted its landing gear — just for one of the wheels to fall off and onto the runway. Despite the scare, the flight continued and “landed safely” at London Heathrow Airport nine hours later, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)...