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The Airbus BelugaXL (A330-743L) is a large
transport aircraft Transport aircraft is a broad category of aircraft that includes: * Airliners, aircraft, usually large and most often operated by airlines, intended for carrying multiple passengers or cargo in commercial service * Cargo aircraft or freighters, fix ...
based on the Airbus A330-200F built by
Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...
to replace the original
Airbus Beluga The Airbus A300-600ST (Super Transporter), or Beluga, is a version of the standard A300-600 wide-body airliner modified to carry aircraft parts and outsize cargo. It received the official name of ''Super Transporter'' early on; however, the nam ...
to move oversized aircraft components, such as wings. The aircraft made its
first flight The maiden flight, also known as first flight, of an aircraft is the first occasion on which it leaves the ground under its own power. The same term is also used for the first launch of rockets. The maiden flight of a new aircraft type is alwa ...
on 19 July 2018, and received its
type certification A type certificate signifies the airworthiness of a particular category of aircraft, according to its manufacturing design (''type design''). It confirms that the aircraft of a new type intended for serial production, is in compliance with applica ...
on 13 November 2019. The BelugaXL entered service with Airbus Transport on 9 January 2020.


Development

In 2013, the five original Belugas could not cope with production growth, and Airbus evaluated the
Antonov An-124 The Antonov An-124 Ruslan (; russian: Антонов Ан-124 Руслан, , Ruslan; NATO reporting name: Condor) is a large, strategic airlift, four-engined aircraft that was designed in the 1980s by the Antonov design bureau in the Ukrain ...
and
An-225 The Antonov An-225 Mriya ( uk, Антонов Ан-225 Мрія, lit=dream' or 'inspiration; NATO reporting name: Cossack) was a strategic airlift cargo aircraft designed and produced by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. It was or ...
,
Boeing C-17 The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft that was developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of two ...
or
Dreamlifter The Boeing 747-400 Large Cargo Freighter (LCF) is a wide-body cargo aircraft modified extensively from the Boeing 747-400 airliner. With a volume of it can hold three times that of a 747-400F freighter.Hanson, Mary et al"Boeing Selects EGAT f ...
, and
A400M The Airbus A400M AtlasNamed after the Greek mythological figure. is a European four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. It was designed by Airbus Military (now Airbus Defence and Space) as a tactical airlifter with strategic capabil ...
, before choosing to modify one of its own aircraft. The programme was launched in November 2014 to build five aircraft to replace the existing five BelugaSTs; the design freeze was announced on 16 September 2015. The program cost is
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...
1 billion for development and production.


Fleet

The original BelugaSTs were not to be withdrawn from service when the BelugaXL is introduced; a mixed fleet is to operate for at least five years, as the increased production rate of single-aisle aircraft requires the ability to move more parts. The BelugaST fleet flew more than 8000 hours in 2017, doubled from 2014, but the five BelugaST aircraft are only halfway through their planned service life: another operator could use them for civil or military logistic applications. The combined Beluga fleet was expected to rise to eight aircraft when three XLs are delivered, as the five originals stay in service before being withdrawn from 2021. The BelugaST fleet was reaching its limits, flying five times daily, and six days per week: 10,000 hours in 2017, while some parts are moved over land. Compared with the time required to move the parts of an
A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the famil ...
, a BelugaST requires three times as much time to move the A330 parts and nine times as much for A350 parts. After an
Airbus A350 The Airbus A350 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The first A350 design proposed by Airbus in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the A330 wi ...
production increase, Airbus aimed to deliver 880 aircraft in 2019, and raise
A320neo The Airbus A320neo family is a development of the A320 family of narrow-body airliners produced by Airbus. The A320neo family (''neo'' for "new engine option") is based on the previous A319, A320 and A321 ( enhanced variant), which was then ren ...
output to 63 per month by 2021; the BelugaXL fleet was expanded with a sixth example in June 2019. The BelugaSTs could still have 10–20 years' flying life left, and may be offered for sale or used to serve external customers.


Production

The aircraft's lower fuselage is assembled on the
Airbus A330 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner in the mid-1970s. Then the company began development on the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A340 ...
final assembly line, and then moved to another facility for the year-long process of assembling the upper fuselage and the lowered nose fuselage. The first section arrived in
Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...
in November 2016. Final assembly started on 8 December 2016. The first large sections: one central and two lateral rear section panels, arrived on 12 April 2017 at the Toulouse Final Assembly facility (L34) from Aernnova's factory in
Berantevilla Berantevilla is a town and municipality located in the province of Álava, in the Basque Country, northern Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto ...
, Spain. Constructed by Airbus subsidiary
Stelia Aerospace Stelia Aerospace (stylized STELIA Aerospace) is an aerospace company headquartered in Toulouse, France. It specializes in the design and manufacture of aerostructures, pilot seats and premium class passenger seats, mainly for the commercial a ...
in Meaulte, its , nose section was delivered in May 2017. The wide, long and high, upper front
fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...
part, framing the cargo door, was delivered from Stelia Rochefort on 7 July 2017. The , long and high door was delivered by Stelia Rochefort in September 2017. In October 2017, 75% of the first BelugaXL structural assembly was done; with systems, mechanical, and electrical integration underway before integration of the
tail The tail is the section at the rear end of certain kinds of animals’ bodies; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals, r ...
elements, which had already been received. Its
maiden flight The maiden flight, also known as first flight, of an aircraft is the first occasion on which it leaves the ground under its own power. The same term is also used for the first launch of rockets. The maiden flight of a new aircraft type is alwa ...
was scheduled for summer 2018 before 10 months of
flight test Flight testing is a branch of aeronautical engineering that develops specialist equipment required for testing aircraft behaviour and systems. Instrumentation systems are developed using proprietary transducers and data acquisition systems. D ...
s necessary for its certification campaign, and a 2019 service entry. The second aircraft was to enter final
assembly line An assembly line is a manufacturing process (often called a ''progressive assembly'') in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added as the semi-finished assembly moves from workstation to workstation where the parts are added in seq ...
in December 2018, and the three remaining each following year. After mating the vertical fin, tail cone and horizontal stabiliser including the outboard vertical surfaces, the main freight door was to be attached from mid-November, before power-on at the end of 2017. The flight test campaign used a single, instrumented aircraft. The front cargo door was attached in December 2017. In January 2018, the second arrived in Toulouse for its transformation, in two months less after
lessons learned Lessons learned (American English) or lessons learnt (British English) are experiences distilled from past activities that should be actively taken into account in future actions and behaviors. There are several definitions of the concept. The ...
from the first.


Testing

The first BelugaXL rolled off the assembly line on 4 January 2018, unpainted and without engines. Fewer than 1,000 flight test hours were planned for its certification campaign. After fitting its
Rolls-Royce Trent 700 The Rolls-Royce Trent 700 is a high-bypass turbofan produced by Rolls-Royce plc to power the Airbus A330. Rolls-Royce was studying a RB211 development for the A330 at its launch in June 1987. It was first selected by Cathay Pacific in April ...
engines, it was ground
tested ''Tested'' is a live album by punk rock band Bad Religion. It was recorded in the USA, Canada, Germany, Estonia, Denmark, Italy and Austria, in 1996, and released in 1997. It is Bad Religion's second live album. Instead of using crowd microphon ...
for months to assess its systems operation, while bench tests in Toulouse and Hamburg, on flight simulators and in laboratories, simulated flight loads on full-scale copies of specific joints between the upper bubble and the lower fuselage, clearing the aircraft for flight, then type certification. In March 2018, the first BelugaXL (MSN1824) was having its engines fitted, while the second (MSN1853) was 30% converted. After successful
landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...
and flight-control system checks, MSN1824 was to be fuelled and ground tested. The third was expected to begin its conversion before the end of 2018. MSN1853 was to be first operational in 2019, after proving work in 11 European stations, while MSN1824 flight instrumentation was to be disassembled. It was rolled out with its
Rolls-Royce Trent 700 The Rolls-Royce Trent 700 is a high-bypass turbofan produced by Rolls-Royce plc to power the Airbus A330. Rolls-Royce was studying a RB211 development for the A330 at its launch in June 1987. It was first selected by Cathay Pacific in April ...
engines but no winglets in April 2018. It passed the ground vibration test in early June 2018, with Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales (ONERA) and
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt The German Aerospace Center (german: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., abbreviated DLR, literally ''German Center for Air- and Space-flight'') is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany ...
(DLR) measuring its dynamic behaviour compared to
flight envelope In aerodynamics, the flight envelope, service envelope, or performance envelope of an aircraft or spacecraft refers to the capabilities of a design in terms of airspeed and load factor or atmospheric density, often simplified to altitude. The t ...
theoretical models. The flight-test programme was expected to last 600 hours. The second aircraft had its lower fuselage completed by mid-June, before upper shell structural work and freight door fitting after summer, for completion by September or October. The first flight was on 19 July 2018, from
Blagnac Blagnac (; oc, Blanhac) is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. The city hosts the aviation museum Aeroscopia. It is the third-largest suburb of the city of Toulouse, although governed by a separate council, and is ...
, Toulouse, France. In February 2019, the first aircraft flew to various destinations, including Airbus's wing plants in
Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
, Germany and Broughton, Wales. The first BelugaXL to enter service was the second aircraft built, which rolled out on 19 March 2019; the first test aircraft will be retro-fitted after certification. The second aircraft (MSN1853) commenced flight-testing on 15 April, and by then, the first (MSN1824) had completed more than 140 test flights over 500 hours, the final stage before certification. A third airframe was undergoing conversion, expected to last until the fourth quarter of 2019, for delivery in 2020. Operations were expected to start with two XLs in the second half of 2019. After more than 200 flight tests over 700 hours, the BelugaXL received its
European Aviation Safety Agency The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is an agency of the European Union (EU) with responsibility for civil aviation safety. It carries out certification, regulation and standardisation and also performs investigation and monitorin ...
(EASA)
type certification A type certificate signifies the airworthiness of a particular category of aircraft, according to its manufacturing design (''type design''). It confirms that the aircraft of a new type intended for serial production, is in compliance with applica ...
on 13 November 2019. The last two BelugaXLs to be produced are expected to have 180-minute
ETOPS ETOPS () is an acronym for ''Extended-range Twin-engine Operations Performance Standards''—a special part of flight rules for one-engine-inoperative flight conditions. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) coined the acronym for ...
approval, allowing them to be used for transatlantic flights, typically to transport satellites to North American launch sites. As of February 2021, tests were being conducted to gain approval for the XL's
autoland In aviation, autoland describes a system that fully automates the landing procedure of an aircraft's flight, with the flight crew supervising the process. Such systems enable airliners to land in weather conditions that would otherwise be dangero ...
capacity.


Operations

Airbus started operating the first BelugaXL on 9 January 2020; all six freighters are expected to be operating by the end of 2023, while the previous A300-600STs are to be phased out from 2021.


Design

With 30% more capacity than the original BelugaST, the BelugaXL can carry two A350 XWB wings instead of one. Its new fuselage is longer and wider than the original BelugaST, and it can lift a payload heavier. Its aft section is based on the
A330-300 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner in the mid-1970s. Then the company began development on the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A340 ...
, while its forward is based on the
A330-200 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner in the mid-1970s. Then the company began development on the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A34 ...
for
centre of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...
reasons, and the reinforced floor and structure is derived from the A330-200 Freighter. The A330 wings, main landing-gear, central and aft
fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...
form a semi-built platform with few systems, without the aft upper fuselage, while the upper central fuselage is cut off, facilitated by the metal construction. The enlarged freight hold is mounted in three months with 8,000 new parts on the junction line. The unpressurised hold begins with the tail adapted by Spain's
Aernnova Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy S.A., formerly Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica S.A. () and Grupo Auxiliar Metalúrgico S.A., is a Spanish-German wind engineering company based in Zamudio, Biscay, Spain. In Spain, the company has two other main ...
, and continues by building the upper fuselage with two side panels and a crown for each section, for a maximum diameter of . Produced by
Stelia Aerospace Stelia Aerospace (stylized STELIA Aerospace) is an aerospace company headquartered in Toulouse, France. It specializes in the design and manufacture of aerostructures, pilot seats and premium class passenger seats, mainly for the commercial a ...
, its main freight door has 24 latches, and the nose includes the cockpit, while a four-seat courier section is supplied by Airbus. Its vertical stabiliser is 50% larger; it has auxiliary fins on the horizontal stabiliser, and two ventral fins beneath the empennage. The BelugaXL operates at Mach 0.69 up to over instead of the original Beluga's . Deharde Aerospace and the
P3 group The P3 Group GmbH is a management consultancy with headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. Based on the company's data, more than 1450 employees work for the company, generating a revenue of about 115 million euros. The P3 Group draws its clients p ...
provide the upper fuselage, while Aciturri produces the horizontal tail plane extension, auxiliary and ventral fins.


Specifications


See also


References


Notes


Further reading

* {{Outsized cargo aircraft BelugaXL 2010s international cargo aircraft Airbus A330 Aircraft first flown in 2018 Twinjets