238 Seats On A 350-Seat Airframe: The Trade-Offs Behind Qantas’ A350-1000ULR

At the heart of the Project Sunrise A350 is a massive 5,283-gallon (20,000-liter) rear center auxiliary fuel tank. A standard A350-1000 is already a long-range powerhouse, whereas the ULR version needs this extra capacity to reach its 9,700-nautical-mile (18,000-kilometer) target with a safe reserve. In the world of aerospace engineering, there is no such thing as a free lunch; every gallon of fuel added is a gallon that must be lifted, which directly eats into the aircraft’s potential payload.