Industry Successful maiden flight for BelugaXL

Airbus’ new freighter, the BelugaXL which rolled out of the hangar in January 2018 and was presented fresh from the paint job last month, has competed its maiden flight in four hours and 11 minutes. The aircraft is the first of five to be built and is expected to go into service later in 2019.

Now the BelugaXL will undergo around 600 hours of flight testing scheduled over a time of 10 months before achieving Type Certification.

The BelugaXL programme was launched in November 2014. With the programme Airbus addresses its transport capacity requirements seeing the A350 XWB ramp-up and increasing Single-Aisle production rates. The BelugaXL has the transport capacity for two A350 XWB wings. Its predecessor, the BelugaST, could transport one A350 XWB wing at a time. Until 2023 four more BelugaXL will be built to gradually replace the current BelugaST.

The aircraft’s distinctive look derives from a lowered cockpit, the cargo bay structure as well as the rear end and tail were newly developed by Airbus together with its suppliers. The freighter is powered by Rolls Royce Trent 700 engines like the A330-200 Freighter the BelugaXL is based on.

Airbus will operate the freighter from 11 destinations to transport large aircraft components.