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Leaving the painting workshop at the end of June in Toulouse, the first BelugaXL "super-oxygenated" cargo plane, looking like a cetacean, performs ground tests. Its first flight is scheduled in the coming weeks, probably by the end of this month of July. This is the first of five models of the second generation of this giant of the air whose construction decision dates back to November 2014.
Called to succeed the current Beluga, the XL will transport for the internal needs of Airbus , complete sections of aircraft: the wing, the nose, the fuselage, rotating between different industrial sites: Toulouse and Hamburg (Germany) in particular.
An extraordinary aircraft based on the A330-200
As its name suggests, the Beluga XL is larger and larger than its predecessor. 63 meters long (compared to 56 meters for the current Beluga) with a wingspan of 60 meters (against 44 meters), it carries more than 52 tons of equipment against 47 tons for the current model. Its maximum takeoff weight will reach 227 tons against 115 tons previously. This non-standard aircraft was custom-built, without a prototype, based on the A330-200 Freighter, "with extensive reuse of components and equipment," says the aircraft manufacturer.
The decision of its construction is related to the manufacturing needs of the A350 which the XL will be able to transport in a single flight the complete wing (two wings) whereas the Beluga transports only one, today. The first XL is due to come into service in 2019 and the four models will follow by 2023 to gradually take over from the Beluga currently in service.
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