TOULOUSE, France - It’s a tough time to be an enormous aircraft these days, just ask the Boeing 747 that went out of production at the end of 2022. Now, after killing off its own super-sized passenger plane in 2021, Airbus has brought production of its bonkers looking Beluga cargo plane to an end this week, Owen Bellwood reports for Jalopnik. Continue reading original article.
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
7 July 2023 - The BelugaXL entered into service in early 2020, and provides Airbus with 30% extra transport capacity in order to support the on-going production ramp-up of commercial aircraft programs.
At 63 meters long and 8 meters wide, the BelugaXL has the largest cargo bay cross-section of all existing cargo aircraft worldwide. The BelugaXL can carry two A350 XWB wings compared to the BelugaST, which can only carry one. With a maximum payload of 51 tons, the BelugaXL has a range of 4,000 km. (2200nm).
The BelugaXL is based on an A330-200 Freighter, enabling the re-use of existing components and equipment, and is powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines. The lowered cockpit, the cargo bay structure and the rear-end and tail were newly developed jointly with partners, giving the aircraft its distinctive look.
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Jamie Whitney, Senior Editor
Military + Aerospace Electronics
