Supplied video obtained Wednesday, May 2, 2018, of a Qantas Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner — the 'Quokka' — in the air. Qantas has scheduled its remaining 747 aircraft for retirement in 2020, more than half a century since it made its first order of jumbo jets, and will replace the fleet with Dreamliners. (AAP Video/Supplied/Qantas) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Qantas has made a record non-stop flight from New York to Sydney with its Dreamliner aircraft in just over 19 hours.

The test flight was researching just what effect the world’s longest commercial plane journey would have on passengers, crew and pilots.

With just 50 passengers on board, four pilots of rotation and an additional two pilots in the cabin, the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner touched down in Sydney at 7.41am on Sunday.

The 16,200km trip took 19 hours and six minutes.

After stepping from the plane one of its passengers, Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce said: “This is a really historic moment for Qantas, a really historic moment for Australian aviation and a really historic moment for world aviation”.

No commercial aircraft currently could fly such an ultra-long haul with a full passenger and cargo load.

For the test flight, Qantas flight took off with a fifth or less of its maximum passenger capacity, restricted baggage, no cargo and maximum fuel of 126,000 litres.

A research team on board the flight testing sleep, activity and consumption patterns of passengers, and tracked the brain wave pattern of pilots with monitoring devices.

#QF7879 update, we ran out of pretzels within 10 hours, and the bathrooms smell like they have been used for the last 20 min 😷 — Alaa (@AlaaAbdine) October 20, 2019

Qantas said it would use the research to identify optimum crew rest and work periods, minimise jet lag and increase health and wellness.

The airline company is, like its competitors, looking into establishing ultra-long-haul travel routes for its carriers as air travel grows in demand.

International Air Transport Association (IATA) statistics predict global annual passenger numbers to grow from 4.6 billion this year to 8.2 billion by 2037.

Plane spotters were at Sydney airport to see the Dreamliner land, and people posted images of it overhead on Twitter.

Online, people posted jokes about how the toilets held up for 19 hours of use, and if the flight attendants wanted to scream or strangle someone after the shift.

candace.sutton@news.com.au