Airbus Beluga XL spreads its wings at long last.

 

 Putting the 'fun' in functional
The plane's distinctive bulbous shape has earned it the nickname "the flying whale," due to its strong resemblance to the white-colored Arctic-dwelling mammal, the beluga.
The XL's twinkly-eyed, smiling-faced livery capitalizes on this. The whimsical design was chosen by Airbus staff following a poll in which 20,000 employees were given six options and asked to choose their favorite. With 40% of the vote, it was the clear winner.
"We used to say that in Toulouse or in Hamburg, the kids recognize the Beluga," Bertrand Grosse, head of the Beluga XL program, tells CNN Travel. "They love this very special plane."
However, the design is functional as well as cute. The enormous cargo bay is large enough to carry two A350 wings at a time (the old Beluga could transport only one), and the whale-like nose improves the craft's aerodynamic efficiency.
Nature, after all, perfected the beluga whale and, explains Grosse, "flying in the air is a little bit like swimming in the sea."
Pilot training
So how does one go about steering a machine like this through the skies? Well, says Grosse, despite the plane's unusual appearance, "for the pilots this is really an A330. Our pilots will be trained on the A330 and then they will get a Delta qualification to enable them to fly the Beluga XL."
While you might think the aircraft would run slower, "the drag is about the same," says Grosse. "What changes really is the behavior of the aircraft at the rear, at the bottom of the cargo bay.
"This is why we have lifted the vertical tail plane by more than two meters to get it out of the flow behind the cargo bay and we have also the special acceleration on the horizontal tail plane to give stability to the aircraft."
The Beluga XL is powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines, which, as with its wings, are also used on the A330.
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Preparations for a very special guest
Airbus manufactures its wings in a large factory at Hawarden Airport.
The facility has undergone special modifications for the arrival of the Beluga XL, such as creating two sets of doors for the Beluga Line Station -- one to fit the Beluga and one to fit the Beluga XL.
Airbus also resurfaced the landing strip, erected blast fences (to safely redirect the engines' high-energy exhaust) and installed new turn pads -- necessary for when the Beluga XL turns around on Howarden's relatively short runway of around 1,600 meters.
Plane-lovers from across the UK gathered in Wales to see the arrival of the Beluga XL on Thursday, and again to see it depart for Toulouse, France, on Saturday.
"This plane is, I would say, iconic for our company," Grosse tells CNN Travel. "This is the workhorse for Airbus. So it is more than a plane. It is what enables Airbus to build aircraft every day."

Tamara Hardingham-Gill and Howard Slutsken contributed to this