Photograph: Airbus A330-743L Beluga XL (F-WBXL) by Paul Cremin on 16 July 2022 at the Royal International Air Tattoo, RAF Fairford, taken with a Canon E40D and a Tamron 100–400mm zoom lens at 138mm, f/9, 1/2000 sec, ISO 400.
Airbus officially launched the BelugaXL program in November 2014. F-WBXL was constructed on the platform of an Airbus A330-200 Freighter. Engineers lowered the cockpit assembly, grafted on a massive 8.8-metre-diameter upper fuselage, and heavily modified the tail section with auxiliary vertical end-fins to maintain stability.
Before its rollout, Airbus held a vote among 21,000 employees to choose the aircraft’s paint scheme. The winning design gave F-WBXL its iconic, instantly recognisable "smiling whale" face.
On 19 July 2018, F-WBXL successfully completed its historic 4-hour and 11-minute maiden flight, taking off from Toulouse-Blagnac Airport in France. The testing campaign wrapped up successfully when the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) awarded the BelugaXL its official type certification on 13 November 2019. The BelugaXL type officially entered commercial operation on 9 January 2020.
F-WBXL paved the way for a total fleet of six BelugaXL aircraft, built between 2016 and 2023. The final aircraft (F-GXLO) joined the line in mid-2024, completing the transition as the primary internal logistics network for Airbus Transport International (ATI).
Today, F-WBXL and its sister ships continuously fly between 11 major European manufacturing sites—such as Broughton (UK), Hamburg (Germany), and Getafe (Spain)—carrying wings and fuselage sections to the final assembly lines.
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