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The Airbus Beluga XL makes its first flight Thursday on the south-west of France. Theft is part of the long process of safety testing that the aircraft must perform before taking the plane commercially. The first flight was operated by F-WBXL
The Beluga XL is a transport aircraft for Airbus and is mainly used to transport factory wings to three final badembly lines around the world. ;Europe. The plane can, however, be used to move other parts of the plane. The aircraft will transport parts from 11 locations to the final badembly lines
The aircraft offers a capacity 30% higher than that of the original belugas and can carry a load of 110 000 pounds, six tons more than its predecessor. The Beluga XL can take off with a maximum load of 227 tonnes of cargo.
In addition to increasing capacity, significant changes to the Beluga XL include a lowered badpit, a larger cargo hold and a separate tail. The aircraft is powered by Rolls Royce Trent 700 engines.
The Beluga XL is based on the A330-200 aircraft. The current Beluga planes are based on the A300.
Airbus initially decided to launch the Beluga XL in 2014 in response to increased transportation needs and aging of the current fleet. Beluga's current fleet has been in service since 1994; before that, Airbus used modified Boeing Stratocruisers to transport parts.
One of the most remarkable features of the aircraft is his painting scheme. The Beluga XL is painted to look like a whale. The final design was voted on six proposals from more than 20,000 Airbus employees.
"The need for a new Beluga accompanies an increase in production rates and overcapacity of this fleet of five aircraft", Stéphane Gosselin, said the director of Airbus Transport International. "So initially, there will be a mixed use of the fleet of new Beluga and old Beluga.And then the second need was also to anticipate the replacement of an aging fleet." [19659012] This Beluga XL, the first of five of its kind, is expected to enter service for Airbus in 2019. Before flying commercially, however, it needs to spend more than 600 hours of flight and ground tests over ten months.
All Airbus images, unless otherwise indicated
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