Whale Watching at London Heathrow
An Airbus BelugaXL has made its first visit to London Heathrow Airport on a mission to deliver spare parts for a damaged British Airways A350.
Although Airbus notes that its A300-600ST supersize transporter – resembling a giant whale –“is big enough to swallow 26 small cars, or seven elephants,” its Heathrow mission was to deliver parts for an A350. This had sustained damage back in April after being clipped with an empty Virgin Atlantic 787 on tow.
The iconic whale-shaped aircraft – registration F-GXLO – made the 45 minute flight from Toulouse on 9 September, landing at Heathrow at about 11am local time. The journey was the most-tracked flight in the world, noted FlightRadar24, with over 27,000 people watching the whale’s progress through the app. Countless more caught a glimpse of the behemoth touch down on the runway, before the aircraft departed some six hours later.
The BelugaXL measures 63.1m long, with a wingspan of 60.3m. Possessing 30% extra transport capacity compared to its BelugaST predecessor, the outsize aircraft is capable of carrying 51 tonnes of payload up to 4,000km.
This could include the movement of large aircraft components between production sites (such as two A350 wings), sub-assemblies or other outsized cargo. Each mission typically averages a mission of around 70 minutes, explains Airbus, with specially-designed loading facilities located at plants in France, Germany, Spain and the UK.
Six specially commissioned examples of the BelugaXL have been built, with the final aircraft joining its siblings at Airbus Transport International (Airbus’ internal airline) in June 2024 after initially serving as the type’s test aircraft. ATI’s BelugaXL fleet is forecast to reach 9,500 flight hours annually (compared to 6.500 in 2024). “The extra lift is welcome, as every Airbus commercial aircraft programme is increasing production through 2024,” explained Airbus in June.
