Since the BelugaSTs are not yet at the end of their service life, Airbus wants to give them a new lease of life with the deployment on the commercial market. Then they don’t have to go to the scrap yard. The Beluga has the world’s largest internal cross-section of any transport aircraft, and can accommodate oversized cargo up to 7.1 meters wide and 6.7 meters high.
Over the years, the Beluga fleet has occasionally been called upon to carry outsized cargo such as industrial machinery and space satellites, apart from the normal day-to-day job of carrying parts of Airbus aircraft. With the new service, the five Beluga’s will be used exclusively for the carriage of such freight for commercially contracted customers.
The service was launched in the last week of December when Beluga “No. 3” brought a brand new helicopter from the Airbus Helicopters factory in Marignane, France, to Kobe, Japan. The large cargo hold allowed the entire helicopter to be placed in the Beluga without having to be disassembled – only the long rotor blades had to be folded back.
Airbus expects business from aircraft engine manufacturers, the aerospace industry, helicopter manufacturers, oil, gas and energy suppliers and the transportation of military equipment, among others. The Beluga can also be used by airlines that have to transfer a separate aircraft engine to an aircraft elsewhere in the world with a broken engine.
Establishment of a new subsidiary
For the first commercial Beluga missions – such as last month to Japan – Airbus’ internal “airline” Air Transport International (ATI) uses its own aircrew. In the near future, once Airbus has put all new BelugaXLs into service, the fully released BelugaST fleet will be transferred to a newly established subsidiary with its own Air Operator Certificate (AOC) and staff.
To better meet the demands of a true international operation, the Beluga’s are equipped with a new-generation Flight Management System (FMS) with ADS-B for enhanced intercontinental navigation capabilities.
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