Beluga XL: the new inaugural flight of Airbus

At 10:31, it was time: the new giant cargo of Airbus, Beluga XL, was lifted for the first time. The spray-painted was launched Thursday, July 19 in Toulouse on an inaugural flight to the Pyrenees and Aix-en-Provence near Marseille. As planned, the plane with a crew of five members landed around 4:42 am in Toulouse about four hours later

Shortly after 11 am, a minor incident occurred: Beluga 1 with l & # 39; F-GSTA record, which with the Beluga XL is expected to fly over the Toulouse airport, reported an emergency situation, as reported by the Airlive portal. At 11:20, the plane landed and the fire trucks followed it. Beluga 1 was launched half an hour before the Beluga XL. The exact reason for the reversal is not known

Start of the operation scheduled for 2019

Meanwhile, the first flight of the XL continues as planned. The Beluga XL was announced in 2014. This took place in January 2018. In June, the aircraft manufacturer presented the livery of the cargo plane. Five of the XL will also be built.

The cargo plane, which will be built on the basis of the A330-200, is expected to come into service in 2019. It will give Airbus new opportunities to transport its own parts. Thus, the Beluga XL can carry about two wings of the A350, while the previous Beluga only has one wing. Belugas are used by Airbus to transport components between sites. In addition, they occasionally fly for external customers.

Eight tons more freight

The Beluga XL can load 53 tons of freight, eight tons more than its predecessor, five of which were also built. While the normal Beluga has a hull width of 7.3 meters, the XL brings it to 1.5 feet more. The length of the stream rises from the old to the new beluga at 63 meters and therefore about seven meters. The Beluga XL has a range of about 4,000 kilometers.

See photos of the Beluga XL and its maiden flight in the photo gallery above