BelugaXL

First Flight – 19 July 2018

Bertrand GEORGE – Head of BelugaXL Programme

Veronique ROCA – BelugaXL Technical Director
Tim DOWN – Head of BelugaXL Testing
Patrick du CHE – Head of Airbus Flight and Integration Tests
Philippe SABO – Head of Airbus Transport International
Oversize Air Transport – End to End solution crucial to Airbus production

Photo des 5 BST

 An airline, ATI, Airbus subsidiary

since 1996

 A fleet of 5 Beluga ST

 A network of 11 stations

 Infrastructures & processes

adapted to high production rates

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Why a BelugaXL ?

 The Beluga ST cannot carry 2

A350 wings at the same time

 Beluga ST Flight Hours

➢ A320 : ref
➢ A330 : x3
➢ A350 : x7

 A system reaching its limits

➢ Up to 5 flights / day, 6 days / week
➢ 8600FH in 2017
➢ Road and sea transport less flexible and
more costly

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Why a BelugaXL ?

 Requirements:
➢ 2 A350 wings
➢ Compatible with existing infrastructures, jigs
and tools
➢ T/O & landing on all sites runways
➢ EIS in 2019

 No existing solution on the market

 The Beluga (ST & XL) cross

sections are much bigger than
those of all existing cargo A/C

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 BelugaXL Overall Planning Today

Feasi
bility Concept Detailed Design
Integration Certif &
WP Manuf. Tests EIS of Manufacturing and EIS of A/C 1, 3, 4 & 5
A/C 2
Launch Nov 2014

▪ Certification in summer 2019

▪ A/C 2: First flight Q1 2019, EIS second semester 2019

▪ A/C 3: Start of assembly Q4 2018, EIS first semester 2020

▪ A/C 1: EIS second semester 2020

▪ A/C 4: Start of assembly Q4 2019, EIS 2021

▪ A/C 5: Start of assembly Q4 2020, EIS 2022

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A Team work - Major Structure & SI Suppliers

Cargo door Typical Fuselage

Rear Fuselage
& Dorsal Fin

HTP box extension & Aux Fins

& Ventral Fins
Nose Fuselage
Elec. SI

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A Team work - Major Equipment / Systems Suppliers
Cargo Door Actuation
Cargo Loading System System
equipment

Engines

Courier Area Door Control Monitoring

System

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2 years of development

 Co-location in D55, JLL

 Up to 1200 people at peak

 All Airbus functions & partners

 Open book & Trust

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From an A330 to a BelugaXL
Main Deck Cargo Door
And other access doors
Cargo Loading System
A330-200 front fuselage, A330-300 rear
fuselage for overall centre of gravity
optimisation

Air Conditioning adaptations

Lowered cockpit to
accomodate for loading zone
Additional fins for
lateral stability, A330
VTP raised by ~2m Same A330 wing, pylons and engines
Many re-use equipment including
New cross-section
Landing Gears
allowing +150% volume
vs A330
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From an A330 to a BelugaXL

Design in Full 3D of the junction between Main cargo door and cargo loading system concepts similar to Beluga ST
A330 and new upper fuselage designed for compatibility with existing infrastructures
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 Next steps:

Full certification Mid 2019

Requirements basis frozen since 2015

About half of documentation (i.e. the ones non Flight Test related) already available

Flight Test campaign used first for development then demonstration.

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End 2016, the A330 platform is ready for 1 year of integration

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Cutting of A330 upper fuselage

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Junction

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Rear Fuselage

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Nose

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HTP and Aux Fins

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Main Cargo Door

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January 2018 - Aircraft moves

 A/C #1 moving from

conversion to test station…

 And A/C #2 arriving in

conversion station

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Going through ground tests
Tim DOWN – Head of BelugaXL Testing
6 months of Ground Tests
2017 2018
Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June
Serial Tests = 294

Conversion Station Test Station External Heavy Ground Test

Development & Certification Tests = 126

Fuel and Hydraulic line tests Pneumatic systems Weighing

Flight Test Instrumentation functionality Loads Introduction
Flying Controls Ground Vibration
Nose Landing Gear Clearance Cargo Loading System with full payload
Cargo Door Final Instrumentation checks
Cargo Loading System 1st trials
pressurisation of forward zone with payload

Lets focus here!

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Aircraft Weighing

Weighing at 10 degrees.
Pitch and Vertical Centre of
Gravity identification

Weighing at 0 degree. Pitch &

Longitudinal Centre of Gravity
identification

22 19/07/2018 Unloading 8T pallet – first use of Cargo Loader

Loads introduction for Model Validation

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Ground Vibration Tests

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Cargo Loading Trials

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2 weeks of painting end of June

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Getting ready for first flight
Patrick du CHE – Head of Airbus Flight and Integration Tests
 BelugaXL First Flight Crew

Christophe CAIL Bernardo SAEZ-

Captain BENITO HERNANDEZ
Experimental Test Pilot Experimental Test Pilot
Chief Test Pilot

Jean-Michel PIN
Test Flight Engineer
Philippe FOUCAULT Laurent LAPIERRE
Flight Test Engineer Flight Test Engineer

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Key features impacting the Flight Test Program

Take-off & Landing

performance

Loads monitoring

Variety of A/C loading Cargo loading operations Configuration de-risk

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BELUGAXL Flight Test Aircraft

MSN1824 – Flight Test Aircraft

Medium FTI (Flight Test Instrumentation)
 One instrumented Flight Test
aircraft, for development and
certification

 One serial aircraft mostly for

operability testing & Functionality and
MSN1853 – Flight Test Aircraft Reliability testing
No FTI (Flight Test Instrumentation)

 Both aircraft will be part of Airbus

Transport International fleet after
completion of the campaign

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 Flight Tests Program Overview

3 4 6
MSN 1 2 5 7 9
MSN1
1824 H/O FF
8 8 8

•1 flight per day per aircraft

•FTI fit for purpose
•Environmental testing consistent with
the need (no hot / cold weather 1 2 4
MSN campaigns, no high altitude campaign)
MSN2
3
H/O FF
1853
TC/STC
EIS

MSN1824 1- Initial phase 6- Ice Shapes Certif

MSN1853 1- STC Flight Tests
2- Development & 7- Post TC tests
Init. certif phase 2- Operability
8- Operability - Sites validation: Broughton, Hamburg, Toulouse, St Nazaire
Bremen, Broughton - Flight crew training
3- Ice Shapes Dev
4- External noise 9- Post TC Phase 2 3- F&R in parallel of operability
Complement to MSN
5- Certification Phase 1853 4- Customer acceptance phase

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 Flight Test Installation
A lot of volume… but just a few pressurised
▪ FTI equipment in non-pressurized area at low temperature  need to
acclimatize up to room temperature.

▪ Flight Test Engineer station behind the cockpit.

▪ Seating capacity for 2 Flight Test Engineers (FTEs)
▪ Technical capacity to be shared between FTEs (no individual
means)

▪ No windows hence little external visibility  video is key

▪ FTI Based on modular system and Remote Acquisition Units / Remote

Power System
▪ 917 on board measurements
▪ More than 90’000 parameters on the Flight Test Instrumentation
database

▪ 30 GB of data recorded per flight hour

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 Flight Test Installation

▪ MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) give aero

pressure distribution on tails and on main cargo door.

▪ High and Low Platform Jig with transferrable ballast to

cover the Weight / Centre of Gravity domain

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First Flight profile
FL320 ENVELOPE EXPANSION
UP TO MMO

CONTINUATION OF HANDLING
FL200 ASSESMENT, SYSTEM CHECK &
DESCENT TO FL100
ENVELOPE EXPANSION

FL150
INITIAL HANDLING
ASSESSMENT, SYSTEM CHECK
& ENVELOPE EXPANSION

EVALUATION BEFORE LANDING FL100

FL80 INITIAL CHECK

INITIAL CLIMB

FLY-BY AT 500FT
TAKE OFF
DIRECT LAW LANDING
TOGA DIRECT LAW

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What’s next
A/C #2 and A/C #3

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ATI getting ready to welcome the BelugaXL
Philippe SABO – Head of Airbus Transport International
In parallel, the airline and infrastructures are getting prepared

 Stations adaptations

 Broughton runway re-surfacing

 Adaptation / development of jigs

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In parallel, the airline and infrastructures are getting prepared

Broughton
 Toulouse – Broughton – Bremen
1st route to be operated for A350
Bremen Wing transport

Toulouse
 Current Beluga ST Flight Crew will
perform 10 weeks type rating
training to fly XL

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BelugaXL connectivity will enable a new operation model

FOMAX  BelugaXL - Digital Aircraft

4G
extended data  New maintenance & operation model:
➢ Improved Reactive Maintenance – Skywise Health Monitoring

ATI IT ➢ Massive data collection and transmission enabling for ATI:

• Predictive Maintenance: action plan in anticipation of imminent event
• Skywise investigation tools suite
• Global and simple architecture • Optimization of flight allocation
• Strong Security Requirements enabling key functionalities
• Airbus End to End services
• FOMAX functionalities to decrease operational costs

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Thank you