The friendly & funny Airbus Beluga XL

Airbus has unveiled the livery on its latest transport aircraft - the Beluga XL. The paint job was selected by 20,000 Airbus employees from 6 design choices. The livery makes the aircraft look like a smiling whale.

The Beluga XL measures 63.1m long, 18.9m tall and has a wingspan of 60.3m. The main fuselage diameter is 8.8m and the plane has a maximum payload of 53 tonnes. It can carry two wings of the Airbus A350 XWB.

The transport aircraft was planned in 2014 as a successor for the current lot of 5 Belugas used by Airbus. The first of the planned five units is expected to undergo ground tests by the end of 2018 and commence service by 2019. The Beluga XL (Airbus A330-700L) is based on the A330-200 and is set to replace the existing fleet completely by 2025. The aircraft's lower fuselage will be manufactured on the existing A330 assembly line before moving to a dedicated facility for a year-long assembly of the nose part and the upper fuselage.

The BelugaXL is powered by two Rolls Royce Trent 700 engines, which are rated at a maximum thrust of 316 KN each. Airbus claims that the airplane can cover a maximum distance of 4,074 km at full payload using these engines.

The Beluga program started in 1992 and was put into operations by late 1995. The plane is based on the Airbus A300 with the model officially called as the A300-600ST. While the lower part is identical to the A300, the upper fuselage consists of a large 7.7 m tall horseshoe-shaped cargo hold. The fleet of 5 is used to fly aircraft components including wings from their factories to the final assembly between Toulouse, Hamburg and 9 other cities across Europe. They have also been used to transport large cargo including vehicles and satellites for many space programs, helicopters, chemical tanks, large artworks as well as humanitarian supplies. Initially called as the Super Transporter, the Beluga name came due to the resemblance with the Beluga whale.