Supersize me

Meet the Airbus Belugaxl

cargo, specifically aircraft components, the new Airbus Belugaxl will carry its considerable bulk into the air by midyear after a spell of ground testing. The first of five planned aircraft rolled out of the company’s Toulouse construction facility in January as a structurally complete airframe, minus engines. A fleet of these next-generation airlifters will be used to transport completed sections of Airbus aircraft among the company’s European production sites and to its final assembly lines in France, Germany and Spain.

In spite of its bulging upper forward fuselage and enormous cargo area, it’s actually based on the Airbus A330-200 jetliner. “We have the A330 as a foundation,” said Bertrand George, head of the Belugaxl programme, “but many changes have been successfully designed, introduced into the aircraft and tested. Transforming an existing product into a super transporter is not a simple task.”

This initial Belugaxl is expected to be flying by mid-2018. “The whole team is really looking forward to seeing its first flight and, of course, its smiling livery,” said George, referring to the supersized smile that will be painted across the “face” of the transporter, the winning design of six options presented to Airbus employees for a vote in early 2017.

Before that can happen, the aircraft will undergo a months-long battery of tests after installation of its two jet engines, ensuring each of the Belugaxl’s systems function as intended. All the

while, said George, “We will perform bench tests in Toulouse and Hamburg, Germany, testing our systems on flight simulators and in laboratories, as well as using hydraulic jacks to simulate flight loads on full-scale copies of specific joints between the new upper bubble and A330’s lower fuselage."

While the first structurally complete Belugaxl moves into its testing phase, the second A330 airframe to be converted into a Belugaxl arrived on schedule in Toulouse to begin its integration process. George noted that, with lessons learnt from the production of the first transporter, the assembly time for the second is expected to be about two months shorter.

Seen outside its assembly hangar in Toulouse, France, the No. 1 Airbus Belugaxl – the first in a fleet of five – is one of the most voluminous aircraft in existence, able to transport both wings of the A350 XWB jetliner at once.

The No. 1 Belugaxl, the first structurally complete new super transporter by Airbus, is seen behind the No. 2 Belugaxl, undergoing its own integration process in an assembly hangar.