"Beluga" - an aircraft belonging to turbojet wide-body cargo vehicles. "Airbus Beluga" was designed specifically for the transport of not only heavy, but also bulk cargo. The idea of creating such a vehicle as a Beluga aircraft belongs to the Airbus consortium. In connection with the conclusion of the contract, the company needed such equipment that would allow it to deliver parts of the cabs for the Airbus A-310 to Toulouse from Hamburg.
A bit of history
At first, at the beginning of its activity, this company used another transport aircraft, namely, the Super Guppy, which was quite enough at that time. But the transported parts of the created aircraft increased, their expanses required other open spaces. The Beluga aircraft (see photo in the article), also known as Beluga, was developed on the basis of the predecessor Airbus A300. He even inherited its name, however, with a small addition - 600ST.
main parameters
“Beluga” is a plane whose body looks like a handsome whale with a consonant name (“beluga”, do not confuse it with commercial fish). In a sufficiently large transport compartment (approximately 1400 m³), cargo weighing up to 47 tons and a length of almost 40 m can be transported.
The flight range at maximum permissible loads can reach 1700 km, with half (up to 26 tons) it can reach 4600 km, practical range - 5200 km. Unlike the Super Guppy, this car boasts a high speed, which is twice as high. The crew consists of two people.
Beluga is an aircraft developed for Airbus (and owned by it). There are only five such devices, they work for their company, but can be rented if necessary for special transportation.
Interesting details
They decided to make a new plane without “fasteners”. The double-wing cargo door goes almost from the floor (to the level), but the cockpit and the entire bow are lowered down. The loading system is semi-automatic, more convenient. In addition to the main cockpit, Beluga has another (cargo) compartment - aircraft containers that are within the standard can be installed in it. Of course, the new car is very different from its ancestor, although about 80% are part of a passenger airbus. In addition to altering the fuselage, the wings and tail feathers underwent a change, and additional washers on the stabilizer improved track stability.
The cockpit itself is identical to the cockpit of the A-300-600. In the bow section there is everything necessary for the crew: kitchen, toilet, additional seats.
The Beluga engine with a take-off power of 262kN was decided to borrow from the CF6-80C-2 from General Electric. Of course, there were other options, but it was this one that proved itself best. Such an engine was installed in most of the
A-310 and A-300
airbuses and managed to "fly" about 20 million hours. In addition, it is easy to maintain. By the way, the same engine also stands on 700 new generation aircraft. The fact is that the failure rate here is only 0.008%. No other engine has such high reliability. However, this is not all. In aircraft, when one engine fails, the second allows you to extend the flight for another hour. Beluga is the plane that broke the record here too: emergency flight time - 180 minutes!
The assembly of the first copy was started in Toulouse on January 11, 1993, and on September 13 of the following year, it solemnly took off.
Undoubtedly, this machine, unique in every sense, has the right to be on the list with the eloquent name “the best planes in the world”.