The demand for commercial aircraft has grown enormously in recent decades. Airbus delivered just over 300 aircraft per year in 2003, according to Statista data. By 2012, however, the number of orders to be filled had grown to approximately 600 units. The European company, which is one of the most important in the industry, was facing a huge challenge at that time: rapidly increase your production.
Avoiding delivery delays allowed it to better position itself in a market where its main competitor is Boeing, the US aerospace giant. If the planes do not reach customers on time, they may decide to choose another manufacturer for future orders and even cancel ongoing orders. Airbus wanted to avoid that scenario and, although it had optimized its production line, it had a major logistical problem.
The necessary plane to be able to build other planes
Its five original Airbus Beluga cargo planes could not efficiently transport all the aircraft parts from one end of the continent to the other. Let’s remember that, Airbus aircraft are typically assembled in Toulouse, France, but many parts, including the wings, come from elsewhere. Before you think about building a new plane, as FlightGlobal points outAirbus considered using the Antonov An-225, sadly destroyed in the Ukrainian war.
The problem was that the An-225, despite being considered the largest aircraft in the world, had a cargo hold that was too narrow. Once this option was ruled out, they evaluated the possibility of resorting to their main competitor and requesting their transport services with the Boeing Dreamlifter, a 747-400 modified to become a true beast of air transport. This option was also dropped. What was left then? build your own planeafter all this is his main business (and skill).
Now, building an airplane from scratch is a very complex task that can take years to complete, in addition to requiring a huge budget and research. In this sense. Airbus couldn’t afford that luxury either. He needed a cargo plane big enough to carry two wings of an Airbus A350 at the same time. As collected by Airbus itselfthe company decided to build the new aircraft on an existing platform, that of the A330.
With that decision, Airbus had just saved itself a good part of the problems at a stroke. The A330 platform had been dominating the skies since the early 1990s. In addition, one of its most reliable proposals. The engineers’ idea was literally cut the plane in half. While the lower part retained the original fuselage, the upper part received new panels that formed a huge cargo hold and gave the plane a whale-like appearance. The Airbus BelugaXL project formally began in 2014.
The new aircraft took shape thanks to the effort of the joint work of teams spread across different parts of the continent. According to Aerospace Technology, the nose, the cabin and the main cargo doors were built by Stelia Aerospace, in France. Deharde Aerospace, in Germany, was in charge of the upper fuselage. Aernnova Aeroestructuras, in Spain, developed the upper rear panels and the vertical stabilizer. Rolls-Royce shipped the two Trent 700 turbofan engines from the UK.
All the parts arrived at the company’s main facilities in Toulouse. Thousands of workers were waiting there, ready to assemble the plane. In addition, it was the neuralgic point of the project to which nearly a thousand company engineers from different parts of the world had been summoned. By October 2017, according to an official press release, 75% of the assembly tasks were completed and the mechanical and electrical systems had been integrated. Construction was proceeding apace.
At the beginning of 2019 in Beluga it was ready for its first tests. After installing the engines, engineers ground-tested the aircraft for months and trained pilots on simulators. Finally, On July 19, it flew for the first time under the watchful eye of the thousands of people who had participated in the project, Airbus executives and the international press. The joint work of French, Spanish, German, British and people of other nationalities had just become a reality.
The result has become a huge transport aircraft whose empty weight is 127 tons. The BelugaXL, which has a length of 63.1 meters and a height of 18.9 meters, can load a maximum of 51 tons and has a range of 4,000 kilometers. The aircraft, which is operated by two pilots, has been part of Airbus Transport since January 9, 2020. Under this company, it transports aviation parts between its plants located in different parts of Europe.
Images: Airbus
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