Dubai: Bahrain International Airport won for the first time the largest aircraft in aviation history, Airbus’ “Beluga,” known as the Celestial Whale, media reported.
The Al Ayam newspaper reported that the aircraft has a duration equivalent to two blue whales and that the maximum net payload of the aircraft is 51 tons.
Airbus developed the Beluga as a successor to the Super Guppy, first to meet Airbus’ own production needs.
Currently, Airbus uses four or five Beluga aircraft to bring large assembled sections of the aircraft’s fuselage and wings. The fifth Beluga serves as a replacement for Airbus and is also presented to supply shipments in the external market to Airbus.
The Beluga is capable of carrying loads of just over 1500 m³ or up to 47 t (103,616 lb) over a distance of 900 nautical miles. Lighter loads are transported over longer distances, for example, from 40 t to 1500 nautical miles and from 26 t to a distance of more than 2,500 nautical miles.
The aircraft is supplied with GE CF6-80C2A8 engines that provide a cruising speed of 0. 7 Mach. The maximum operating altitude is 35,000 feet (10,670 m).
The Beluga used to send space station items, helicopters, artwork, humanitarian aid and, in July 2003, several vintage planes to an air show in Wisconsin, USA. In the U. S. , where it remained on static display.
Beluga’s shipping missions also include the delivery of the Eutelsat W3A satellite, built through EADS Astrium, the launch of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in February 2004, and the vertical empennage airlift of the first Airbus A380 from Hamburg, Germany, to the last Airbus meeting corridor in Toulouse, France.
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