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The City of Canberra is a Boeing 747-400 delivered to Qantas in 1989. During its delivery from the Boeing factory in Seattle in the United States to Sydney, Australia, it made a non-stop flight from London Heathrow Airport to Sydney Airport. As of February 2015, this remains the longest non-stop un-refuelled flight by an airliner.
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Aircraft
The City of Canberra, registered VH-OJA, was the first aircraft delivered against Qantas' first order of Boeing 747-438s; for ten aircraft. It was not modified for the flight in any way – such as by the installation of extra fuel tanks – but some items of equipment were removed from the galleys and cargo compartments to save weight.
Record-breaking flight
The 747-400 took 20 hours and 9 minutes to fly a distance of 9,720 nautical miles (18,001 km) from London's Heathrow Airport to Qantas' main base, Kingsford Smith International Airport in Sydney. The elapsed time was six minutes longer than the quickest non-stop England–Australia flight, which was made by an Avro Vulcan of the Royal Air Force in 1961. The City of Canberra set a record for the longest un-refuelled flight by a commercial aircraft, as the Vulcan was a military aircraft and had to be refuelled in flight several times while flying from RAF Scampton to RAAF Base Richmond near Sydney.
Subsequent service
City of Canberra remained in service with Qantas until January 2015, when it was retired as part of the draw-down of the airline's fleet of 747s. The last commercial flight was from Johannesburg (JNB/FAOR) to Sydney (SYD/YSSY). It was subsequently donated to Historical Aircraft Restoration Society at the Illawarra Regional Airport via a delivery flight on 08 March 2015, and has been placed on public display after a short period of decommissioning.