Airbus Beluga
The Airbus A300-600ST, or Beluga, is a version of the standard Airbus A300
wide-body airliner modified to carry over-sized cargo.
Several major aircraft manufacturers are multinational and it is not unusual
for them to have plants in widely separated locations. Airbus, however, is
unique in that it is a consortium formed by major French, British, German,
and Spanish aerospace companies, and the geographic location of Airbus
manufacturing is not merely a matter of cost and convenience, it is also a
matter of history, national interest, and pride. In consequence, each of the
Airbus partners makes an entire aircraft section which needs to be transported
to a central location for final assembly. The details vary from one model to
another, but the general arrangement is for the wings to be made in Britain,
the tail in Spain, the fuselage in Germany, and the nose and center section in
France; all being united at either Toulouse or Hamburg.
When Airbus started in 1970, the first few components were delivered by road,
but growing production numbers soon necessitated a switch to air transport.
From 1972, onwards, a fleet of four highly modified "Super Guppies" took over.
These were former Boeing Stratocruisers from the 1940s, converted with custom
fuselages and turbine engines to carry large volume loads for the 1960s NASA
space program. As time went by, the Super Guppies became unsatisfactory:
their age meant that operating expenses were high and growing higher, and
increasing Airbus production rates needed greater capacity.
In 1991 Aerospatiale and Dasa, two of the major Airbus partners, formed a
company to develop a replacement. The starting point was a standard wide-body,
twin-engined Airbus A300: the wings, engines, landing gear, and the lower part
of the fuselage were retained, the upper part of the fuselage was replaced with an
enormous horseshoe shaped structure 7.4 metres in diameter. To provide access
to the cargo area the standard A300 cockpit was moved down below the cargo
floor level and a 17 metre high cargo door fitted. Finally, the tail structure
was enlarged and strengthened to maintain directional stability.
Construction began in September, 1992, and the first flight was in September, 1994.
After 335 hours of test flying certification was awarded in September, 1995,
and the A300-600ST, now known as the "white whale" or Beluga, entered service.
Four more Belugas have been constructed at a rate of roughly one a year, and
all five are in regular service. Their primary task is to carry Airbus
components across Europe for final assembly in Toulouse or Hamburg,
but they are available for charter work as well and have been used to carry a
variety of special loads including space station components, large, very
delicate artworks, industrial machinery, and entire helicopters.
(The Beluga illustrated above had been chartered to carry two complete
NHI NH90s and a Eurocopter Tiger from Europe to Australia and back.)
There are aircraft that can carry heavier loads, notably the Antonov An-124,
the Boeing 747, and the Lockheed C-5, but none have a comparable internal volume.
The A300-600ST's freight compartment is 7.4 metres in diameter and 37.7
metres long; maximum payload is 47 tonnes.
This article is licensed under the
GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the
Wikipedia article "Airbus Beluga".
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