Beluga XL: this is how the giant that will transport future Airbus planes was built

The Airbus A330-743 Beluga XL, a large cargo transport aircraft designed specifically to carry aircraft fuselages and wings inside, made its maiden flight on Thursday.

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The first Beluga aircraft was built on the basis of an Airbus A300-600 airliner and made its maiden flight in 1994. The European aircraft company was inspired by the design of the Aero Spacelines Super Guppy, a transport aircraft created in the 1960s based on the four-engine Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter. Initially, Airbus used the Super Guppy, but this model eventually proved insufficient for the needs of the European company. Development of the Beluga began in 1992, and in 2014, the construction of five larger aircraft to replace it was announced, based on the Airbus A330-200, an airliner that is 58.8 metres long and has a wingspan of 60.3 metres.

The new Beluga XL is longer than the aircraft on which it is based (63.1 metres), while retaining the same wingspan. Its powerplant is made up of two Rolls-Royce Trent 700 turbofans. The most striking feature of the aircraft, as with the Beluga, is its enormous cargo hold, located high in the fuselage, with a capacity of 2,615 cubic metres. Due to the layout of this cargo hold, the cockpit is located lower than in the A330, so that the appearance of these aircraft closely resembles that of a beluga, which is why it was given the name of this cetacean.

Airbus published a video on its YouTube channel on Thursday showing the construction process of this very special aircraft, which is scheduled to enter service in mid-2019, with the aim of replacing all old Belugas with new Beluga XLs by 2025: