Massive ‘flying whale’ plane by Airbus completes maiden flight

The huge aircraft of Airbus, which is designed just like a whale, successfully completed its first flight on Thursday morning.

The massive over-sized whale-shaped plane by Airbus, named BelungaXL and nicknamed ‘whale in the sky’, took to the skies in France and completed its first test flight. The test flight was witnessed by a huge crowd of about 10,000 people.

Having the shape of a whale, the plane’s nose is also specifically designed to look like it. The flight was four hour and 11 minutes long and carried three crew members inside it. Before taking to the skies, the plane was tested dozens of times on ground as well to ensure the flight’s smoothness.

The craft is the length of two whales and can carry up to 51 tons. The craft has Rolls Royce Trent 700 engines, costing £530 million each and a lowered cockpit below the nose and can be opened for loading cargo. The cargo hold of the plane is amongst the largest ever on a civilian or military craft.

Since the plane is not intended to carry passengers, it does not have any windows. The employees were made to vote for the possible designs for the craft, and settled on a whale-like shape, due to which the plane even has whale’s mouth and eyes painted on it, reported The Sun.

Tim Orr, head of branding at Airbus, said “The six designs we proposed for consideration by employees respected our brand identity while running from the conventional to the unconventional, even adding a touch of fun.”

The plane will begin its commercial flights in 2019 for transporting large aircraft parts to assembly lines in France and Germany, reported Mashable. Moreover, the company plans to make five of these gigantic whale planes over the next five years, replacing five older versions of BelugaST.