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Airbus Beluga

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Re: Airbus Beluga

#21

Post by Symbiote »

kingosticks wrote: post #14
mbertschler wrote: post #5

Does anyone know what kind of payloads this plane is used for? Something relatively light but requiring a large volume? As there are only 5 of those built, there doesn’t seem to be a big demand for these, and the payload capacity is the same as the standard body version.

There are also now 6 Beluga XLs with approx 30% larger cargo hold than original Beluga. I'm curious if Airbus ever lease them out to others for transporting big things other than wings.

You might consider reading the linked article, or the one for the Beluga XL, which would answer your question.

Re: Airbus Beluga

#22

Post by Simon_O_Rourke »

sdoering wrote: post #4

Living near Hamburg, Germany and working in the city (pre Covid) I saw it quite often when it approached for landing at the Airbus facility. Compared to all other air traffic going to the regular airport it definitely looks quite interesting, when in flight. I actually enjoy seeing it as something of engineering ingenuity. When my SO and me bought our house the seller was working at Airbus and told me that he found i…

I saw it one afternoon coming in to land at Hamburg, and I initially thought I'd had one too many Astra beers. It's definitely unique looking, but the roll rate and noise don't appear too unusual.

Re: Airbus Beluga

#23

Post by jacquesm »

Simon_O_Rourke wrote: post #22
sdoering wrote: post #4

Living near Hamburg, Germany and working in the city (pre Covid) I saw it quite often when it approached for landing at the Airbus facility. Compared to all other air traffic going to the regular airport it definitely looks quite interesting, when in flight. I actually enjoy seeing it as something of engineering ingenuity. When my SO and me bought our house the seller was working at Airbus and told me that he found i…

I saw it one afternoon coming in to land at Hamburg, and I initially thought I'd had one too many Astra beers. It's definitely unique looking, but the roll rate and noise don't appear too unusual.

If anything it moves very stately simply because of it's geometry. It's not exactly a sports plane or a fighter. But it flies and quite reliably so.

Re: Airbus Beluga

#24

Post by trebligdivad »

jacquesm wrote: post #2

I saw this plane once in person, no picture will ever do it justice. That something that size can fly at all without being a dirigible is absolutely amazing.

Yep! I saw it overhead, and the Beluga smile/eye is just wonderful; it was on it's way to Chester, UK (BAE???) from Hamburg.

Re: Airbus Beluga

#26

Post by game_the0ry »

gregoriol wrote: post #18

It's amazing how small other planes look like when being loaded inside: https://simpleflying.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/1280px-F... https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Airbus_b... https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/F-GSTD_B...

A plane that can transport other planes. I call that - plane inception. A plane within a plane.

What if the plane inside also had a small plane? It would be a plane inside a plane inside a plane.

Re: Airbus Beluga

#27

Post by kingosticks »

Symbiote wrote: post #21
kingosticks wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are also now 6 Beluga XLs with approx 30% larger cargo hold than original Beluga. I'm curious if Airbus ever lease them out to others for transporting big things other than wings.

You might consider reading the linked article, or the one for the Beluga XL, which would answer your question.

Thanks so much for the tip. I looked at it but it's all folded on the mobile view and I totally missed it. However, the beluga xl article holds no information regarding this that I can see.

Other than other vehicles and containers, this is pretty cool:

> In 1999, a Beluga carried a large painting, Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix,[20] which had hung in the Louvre in Paris since 1874

Re: Airbus Beluga

#28

Post by game_the0ry »

Planes are weird. Sometimes I look at like 747 or a monster like the beluga, and think - how the fuck does something that big and heavy even move on the ground, and then fly across the ocean?

A plane transporting another plane inside is almost too much process.

Re: Airbus Beluga

#29

Post by nawgz »

_8j50 wrote: post #3

The 100K lb capacity is interesting. An 18 wheeler truck has 80K lb capacity, I would have thought it could carry multiple full capacity containers.

Its primary use is to transport airplane components between Airbus facilities, as Airbus has manufacturing facilities producing various components (wings, fuselages, etc.) across multiple countries. These things are not easy to move on roads.

Re: Airbus Beluga

#30

Post by bobthepanda »

Toutouxc wrote: post #9
_8j50 wrote: post #3

The 100K lb capacity is interesting. An 18 wheeler truck has 80K lb capacity, I would have thought it could carry multiple full capacity containers.

That you can fit something inside a plane doesn't mean the plane will be able to lift off the ground. Beluga is meant to carry oversize cargo, but not overweight cargo -- it's based on an Airbus A300 with a roughly 100k lb cargo capacity, but with a huge fuselage. Same wings, and worse aerodynamics.

Right, a fuselage and other things the plane is likely to be carrying are big, but also hollow (they are meant to fly in the end)
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