Airbus Beluga XL

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Airbus A330-743L
"Beluga XL" A330-743L (cropped) .jpg
Type: Twin-engine cargo plane
Design country:

Manufacturer:

airbus

First flight:

July 19, 2018 in Toulouse

Commissioning:

January 9, 2020

Number of pieces:

3 (6 planned)

The Airbus Beluga XL (technical name Airbus A330-743L ) is a variant of the Airbus A330 for the transport of aircraft components between the Airbus production sites. Between 2019 [obsolete] and 2023, six Beluga XL are to replace the five predecessor A300B4-600ST Beluga that have been in use since 1995 . The first flight took place on July 19, 2018 in Toulouse, and on November 13, 2019 the aircraft was approved by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The first aircraft entered service on January 9, 2020.

background

At the beginning of 2010, studies began to develop a successor to the Beluga . Airbus justified the new design with the age of the heavily used Beluga fleet and the additional cargo space required, especially for the series production of the Airbus A350 XWB . One reason for choosing the A330-200F as the base model over the nearly five-meter-longer A330-300 was its ability to be more compatible with the short length and maximum landing mass of the runway at Hawarden Airport at Airbus' Broughton plant.

history

On November 17, 2014, Airbus announced the start of development of the Beluga successor. The Beluga XL can transport two wings of the A350 thanks to the one meter wider and six meters longer cargo hold as well as the six tonnes higher load capacity . The cargo plane has a fuselage diameter of 8.80 m, a wingspan of 60.30 m, a height of 18.90 m and a length of 63.10 m. With a maximum payload of 53 tons, a maximum take-off mass ( MTOW ) of 227 tons and a cruising altitude of 37,000 ft (11,278 m), the range should be 2200  NM (4075 km). Two Rolls-Royce Trent 700s serve as the drive . Production of the first components for the Beluga XL started at the end of 2015, the final assembly of the prototype with the type designation A330-743L (43 stands for the engine type) and production serial number MSN 1824 at the end of 2016.

The first Beluga XL had the rollout on January 4, 2018 , still without engines. After the engines were installed in March 2018, ground vibration tests by ONERA and DLR and test bench tests in Toulouse and Hamburg followed at the beginning of June 2018 . On July 10, 2018, the two Trent 700 engines were started for the first time in the first Beluga XL ( aircraft registration F-WBXL) . The first flight followed on July 19, 2018 in Toulouse. Commissioning was planned for 2019 after almost a year of testing; in February 2019, two wings of the A350 were flown from Bremen to Toulouse for the first time. On March 19, 2019, Airbus presented the second aircraft (MSN1853, F-WBXS) and announced on April 10, 2019 that it would now build six aircraft.

The first test aircraft will be retrofitted after the type certification . The second aircraft began flight tests on April 15, and by then the first (MSN1824) had completed more than 140 test flights over 500 hours, the final phase before certification. A third airframe has been converted for delivery in 2020, which is expected to last until the fourth quarter of 2019.

The commissioning took place on January 9th with the second aircraft built under the new registration number F-GXLH.

The existing Belugas will not be taken out of service when the Beluga XL is introduced. A mixed fleet should be in operation for at least five years. The previous Beluga fleet flew more than 8,000 hours in 2017, which is double that in 2014.

construction

The aircraft is based on the A330-300, the front part on the A330-200 for reasons of focus. The cargo hold floor construction and reinforced structure come from the A330-200F. The superstructures have been redeveloped. This applies to the lowered bow, the structure of the cargo hold including the bow door, wings and fin. The A330 wings, main landing gear, central and tail fuselage form a prefabricated platform. The enlarged pressureless cargo hold will be manufactured in three months in sections from two side walls and an upper end at Deharde Aerospace and the P3 Group. The stern is being adapted by the Spanish Aernnova . In contrast to the Beluga ST, the fin in front of the vertical stabilizer is larger, in three parts, and has a kink. Fins have been added to the underside of the rear. The horizontal stabilizer of the A330 was widened by one meter half-span and provided with one meter higher end plates. The bow door with 24 locks and the area above the cockpit are built by Stelia Aerospace , the tail and ventral fins by Aciturri.

Technical specifications

Parameter A330 "Beluga XL" A300 "Beluga ST"
length 63.1 m 54.16 m
span 60.3 m 44.84 m
height 18.9 m 17.24 m
Wing area 361.6 m² 260 m²
Elongation 10.1 7.7
Hull diameter 8.8 m 7.71 m
Cargo hold volume 2,209 m³ (46.6 m length) 1231.4 m³ (7.7 m diameter × 37.7 m length)
Max. Takeoff mass 227 t
Max. Landing mass 187 t 155 t
Empty mass 125 t 86.5 t
payload 50.5 t
Cruise speed 737 km / h 780 km / h
Range approx. 4,075 km with maximum payload (53 t) 1,700 km
Cruising altitude 37,000 ft (11,278 m)
Engines two Rolls-Royce Trent 700s , 316 kN each two General Electric CF6 -80C2A1, each 262.4 kN static thrust

Web links

Commons : Airbus A330-743L Beluga XL  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Sebastian Steinke: Special transporter for A350 wing pairs: Airbus Beluga XL goes into service. In: Flugrevue.de. January 14, 2020, accessed January 14, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Construction of a sixth copy: Airbus enlarges the Beluga XL family. In: aeroTELEGRAPH. April 10, 2019, accessed April 10, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b Giant aircraft: Beluga XL took off for the first time. In: Spiegel Online . July 20, 2018. Retrieved July 20, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Timo Nowack: Airbus Beluga XL has the green light from Easa. In: aerotelegraph. November 13, 2019, accessed November 13, 2019 .
  5. ^ New Beluga. (PDF; 1.8 MB) In: Airbus. June 7, 2012, accessed July 20, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Airbus leans towards A330-200 to replace Beluga fleet. In: FlightGlobal.com. Retrieved July 20, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Airbus to expand oversize air transport capability. In: airbus.com. November 17, 2014, accessed November 14, 2014 .
  8. ↑ Airbus selects major aerostructure suppliers for Beluga XL. In: airbus.com. June 17, 2015, archived from the original on June 18, 2015 ; accessed on July 4, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Matthias founder: starting shot for the new large transporter. In: aero.de. September 17, 2015, accessed September 18, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Airbus A330-700 Production List. In: planespotters.net. Retrieved March 25, 2017 (English).
  11. ↑ Sebastian Steinke: Beluga delivers the first Beluga XL. In: Flugrevue.de. November 7, 2016, accessed March 25, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Beluga XL starts engines
  13. ↑ First flight Beluga XL , accessed on July 20, 2018
  14. ↑ The first Beluga XL is painted
  15. ↑ Development milestone: Integration begins for Airbus' next-generation Beluga XL. In: airbus.com. January 6, 2017, archived from the original on January 16, 2017 ; accessed on March 25, 2017 (English).
  16. ↑ Airbus lets the second giant whale outside. aerotelegraph.com, March 19, 2019, accessed March 20, 2019 .
  17. ^ Rainer W. During: Beluga XL in the final assembly . In: FliegerRevue . No. 3 , 2017, p. 16-18 .
  18. ↑ Ulrike Ebner: Airbus special transporter: This is how the Beluga XL differs from its predecessor. In: Flugrevue.de. January 3, 2017, accessed October 29, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Beluga XL program achieves design freeze. Airbus , September 16, 2015, accessed January 30, 2017 .
  20. ^ A b Aircraft Characteristics Airport And Maintenance Planning - Beluga XL. (PDF; 19.4 MB) In: airbus.com. P. 9 , accessed on October 29, 2019 (English).