Airbus Beluga; World’s Strangest Airplane Takes its first Flight

Airbus has perfected the design for their new and massive BelugaXL; transport aircraft. Company debuted this new plane in front of an audience of more than 10,000. The debut was held at company’s headquarters in Toulouse, France.

Airbus Company’s new plane which is named after its unique design of resembling a Beluga Whale is first of five planes that Airbus is planning to build by 2023.

The first flight of this plane was for duration of 4 hours and 11 minutes. The flight started and ended to and at the same airport; Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, France at local time of 2:24 PM.

Next step for this plane is its 10 months flight duration that will lead to its Beluga XL Certification. If everything goes according to plane, then the company is planning to put this plane in service by next year.

BelugaST that is soon going to be replaced by XL was originally the Airbus A300-600ST which was originally and now discontinued A300 model. Now A300-600ST has taken the name of the whale that it according to most resembles.

The plane was initially used by a European country for transporting aircraft and extra large cargo. The future of this plane is prosperous as it will help company to transport the large aircraft parts from productions facilities and to the assembly lines.

The large size of BelugaST is big enough to even hold the wings of A340 wide body. Its cargo capacity is so massive that it is even able to transport the Fuselage section of an Airbus A350. These parts of massive aircrafts were in reality impossible to be transported by fitting them in an aircraft.

Company modified the Airbus A300 wide body by cutting the top section and adding in another bubble shaped fuselage system in airframe.

After the certification of BelugaXL it will carry on transport missions that are being carried out by ST as of moment. According to airbus, the airplane will transport part from at least 11 different locations to different assembly lines.