Airbus announced that already the third BelugaXL has rolled out of the paint-shop in Toulouse. The first operational flight of the giant took place on 9 January, 2020.

The BelugaXL was awarded Type Certification by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in November 2019, following an intensive flight test campaign that saw the BelugaXL complete more than 200 flight tests, clocking over 700 flight hours.

As for now, this is the third BelugaXL out of six which saw the light of day.

Three – the magic number! Say hello to #BelugaXL 3️⃣, freshly rolling out of our paint-shop in Toulouse.
Three more to come for the BelugaXL team to be complete! pic.twitter.com/4MiLcoX62P

— Airbus (@Airbus) June 11, 2020

At 63 metres long and 8 metres wide, the BelugaXL has the largest cargo bay cross-section of all existing cargo aircraft worldwide.

The BelugaXL is based on an A330-200 Freighter, enabling the re-use of existing components and equipment, and is powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines.