This was the first flight of Beluga XL, the giant whales-shaped Airbus cargo plane



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This is a "flying whale".

The huge Beluga XL aircraft from aircraft manufacturer Airbus made its first flight across the skies in France on Thursday.

The vessel is destined to transport parts of other aircraft between the different factories of the European company.

The Beluga XL is a larger version of the Beluga ST, the transport aircraft that Airbus had and has been in service since the 1990s.

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Airbus needs such an aircraft to transport key aircraft components from the factories where they are built to the sites. final assembly in France, Germany and Spain.

Beluga XL measures 19 meters and is as large as a three-story building says Airbus.

The huge fuselage can carry parts of other planes before assembly with a maximum load of 51 tons on a non-stop route of up to 2,200 nautical miles (4,074 kilometers), reports the company.

Move two wings of the A350 at a time, and not one like its predecessor.

The Beluga XL, which was decorated for the occasion as a "flying whale" departed Thursday at 08:30 GMT from The Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France, landed about four hours later at the same place.

This is the first of five Beluga XLs that are planned to be manufactured and will begin to operate gradually until 2022.

This is not the only one

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Of a remarkable size, the Beluga XL is not the largest supercarrier flying in the sky.

Boeing, for example, has his own great beast: the Dreamlifter that he uses to haul the major components of the plane. 787 Dreamliner passengers from factories in Italy and Japan to final assembly sites in the states of Washington and North Carolina, in the north-west and east of the US

If the Airbus Looks like a whale, the Boeing it looks more like a snake that has swallowed a cow, say Theo Leggett and Matthew Wall, BBC business reporters.


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