The first BelugaXL took off Thursday at 10:30 am from Blagnac Airport in Toulouse for its maiden flight over southwestern France. The first of five BelugaXLs scheduled to enter into service in 2019, the airplane will also become the first to replace one of five BelugaST transporters.

The crew in the cockpit comprised captain Christophe Cail, copilot Bernardo Saez-Benito Hernandez and test flight engineer Jean Michel Pin. Meanwhile, Laurent Lapierre and Philippe Foucault monitored the aircraft systems and performance in real-time at the flight test engineer’s station.

Airbus launched the BelugaXL in November 2014 to address the transport and ramp-up capacity requirements for Airbus beyond 2019. It based the new oversize air transporters on the A330-200 Freighter, with a large re-use of existing components and equipment.