The Airbus Beluga XL has already had its first flight test

TOULOUSE (AFP) –

The new Beluga XL, the Airbus cargo aircraft in the shape of a smiling whale, made its first test flight Thursday in the Toulouse area, in the south of France.

The Airbus A330-743 Beluga XL will be used to transport the parts of most Airbus aircraft from the various production sites of the European group (located in several countries, such as Germany, the United States). Spain or the United Kingdom) to the Toulouse factory, where assembly is done.

The vessel will gradually replace the current Beluga ST of 2019 and "is part of our production system," said Bertrand George, director of the Beluga XL program, detailing the network of European factories involved in the puzzle. Airbus but that "they are two hours from Toulouse."

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"All Airbus except the A380, who has his own mode of transportation, spend two hours on the Beluga ".

The resemblance of the Beluga XL with the white whale, which it bears the name, was accentuated with the eyes of the cetacean and a big smile painted on the front of the plane. Decoration decided by group employees during a vote.

The program, launched in 2014, provides for the construction of five XL specimens, the first of which will be operational in 2019.

To make this mastodon 18.9 meters in height, 63.1 meters in length. fuselage has a diameter of 8.8 meters, the engineers started from an "A330 base, from which we modified the wings, engines and the lower fuselage," said George.

"It's an excellent platform, a solid foundation," he said, recalling that several hundred A330s fly around the world every day.

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According to the program director, the new plane was needed for the production of the new aircraft long-haul A350 XWB, the latest generation, which requires composite materials.

"Today, we are carrying the wings of the A350 XWB one by one, tomorrow we will transport them two by two," said George.

The test flight lasted four hours and the Beluga XL flew over the Pyrenees and part of the Mediterranean before returning to Toulouse.