Airbus BelugaXL performed its maiden flight in July 2018, and the planes have been testing over the last few months in Toulouse, France and Bremen, Germany. The European aircraft manufacturer is close to complete the final tests and receive a certificate for operation of the supersize cargo aircraft.
Airbus BelugaXL has just completed a key round of testing at Hawarden Airport in Wales, ahead of entering service later this year. The cargo plane is designed by Airbus to fly its aircraft components between European production sites and its final assembly lines in Toulouse, Hamburg, and Tianjin.
The news of the successful tests will come as a relief for Airbus after its announcement that it is to mothball the A380 due to low sales.
Airbus BelugaXL is based on the A330 airliner, to be the successor to the Airbus Beluga. The XL has an extension on the fuselage top like the Beluga. Through an upward-opening forward hatch on the “bubble,” completed aircraft wings, fuselage sections, and other components easily slide in and out. The BelugaXL’s bubble is six meters longer and one meter wider than the original, meaning its cross-section is a whopping eight meters wide.
Airbus BelugaXL has a payload capacity of 50,500 kg, length of 63.10 m, a height of 18.90 m, a wingspan of 60.30 m and wing area of 361.60 sqm. The empty weight of the aircraft is 127,500 kg and maximum takeoff weight is 227,000 kg. The cargo hold volume is 2,209 cub m. Airbus BelugaXL has two 316 kN (71,000 lbf) Rolls-Royce Trent 700 turbofan and operates with a cruise speed of 0.69 Mach (737 km/h).
