Airbus' Beluga: Giant of the skies set to get even larger

Airbus' Beluga: Giant of the
skies set to get even larger
By CNN Staff
 Updated 12:09 PM ET, Mon January 19, 2015
Story highlights
Airbus' fleet of five Beluga super transporters
has been in service for over 20 years
New model of Beluga planned to enter service in
2020
New plane will be even larger and able to
transport two A350 wings on same flight
Inside one of the world's weirdest-looking planes
03:49
Airbus operates a fleet of five Beluga cargo
airlifters, which together perform more than 60
flights each week to transport components for
the company's jetliners between 11 sites in
Europe.
With a diameter of 7.1 meters, the Beluga has an
incredibly large cargo hold. Though its maximum
payload of 47 tons is surpassed by only a
handful of cargo aircraft, the hold makes it good
for oversized but not particularly heavy cargo.
(CNN)— It's the white whale of the skies and one
of aviation's rarest and most loved planes
currently in service.
The Airbus A300-600ST, popularly known as the
"Beluga" because of its resemblance to the white
Arctic whale, is the European plane
manufacturer's super-sized transporter jet.
Five of these enormous planes make more than
60 flights each week, carrying parts for all of
Airbus' planes from manufacturing sites -- wings
in the UK, tails in Spain, for example -- to the
final assembly facilities in either Toulouse,
Hamburg or Tianjin.
The planes have been in service since 1994, but
are in need of reinforcements.
Since the plane's inaugural flight, Airbus's
production rates have increased five fold, so a
new fleet is planned to keep up with demand,
especially with the new A350XWB plane now
entering service.
"The need for the new Beluga comes with the
increase in production rates and to get extra
capacity on top of this fleet of five aircrafts,"
says Stephane Gosselin, head of Airbus
Transport International.
"So initially there will be a mixed fleet use of
both new Beluga and old Beluga. And then the
second need was as well to anticipate
replacement of an aging fleet."
A crew of three operates the Beluga: two pilots
and a loadmaster. Because of its size the plane
reacts differently to other large jets in
turbulence; moving sideways more than up and
down.
Read more: The white whale turns 20
The five Belugas currently in operation are,
actually, Airbus A300-600 jets that have been
modified to carry large cargo.
The top section of the aircraft was cut and an
additional, wider fuselage section -- resembling a
bubble -- was added to the airframe, giving it its
characteristic hump.
The cockpit was lowered, making it possible for
the cargo hold to be loaded and unloaded
through the front of the aircraft.
The result is an incredibly spacious cargo hold
of 1,400 cubic meters. That's the equivalent to
671 people, 36 cars or seven elephants.
"The perception you have (when the cargo door
opens) is of a huge volume like a cathedral,"
says Gosselin.
Although the Beluga's maximum payload of 47
tons is surpassed by a handful of other cargo
aircraft, its voluminous hold makes it suitable for
transporting oversized, but not particularly
heavy, cargo, like aircraft parts.
Read more: Superjumbo on streets of tiny village
The Beluga can carry the wings of an A340
airliner or a fuselage section for Airbus' newest
wide-body aircraft, the A350.
But it's not large enough to transport many
A380 super jumbo parts. Those need to travel by
boat, barge and road.
With the A300 now out of service, the new
Belugas will be based on the Airbus A330 and be
bigger than the existing fleet. While the current
planes can only carry one wing for the new A350
at a time, the new jet will be able to take on
board both on the same flight.
And for plane-spotters who love the unique
shape of the existing Beluga, that will remain
much the same.
"It will be the same look," says Gosselin,
"because we will operate both fleets in parallel
for a number of years and it will also be
compatible with existing loading means."
The first of the new fleet will enter service in
2020.
Aviation writer Miquel Ros contributed to this
report.
Source: CNN.com