Summary Airbus BelugaXL delivers spare parts for damaged BA A350 at London Heathrow. The BelugaXL, based on A330-200F, replaced older BelugaST. Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9 collided with A350-1000's horizontal stabilizer at Heathrow.
An Airbus BelugaXL has flown to London Heathrow to deliver spare parts for a British Airways A350 that had been damaged after another aircraft hit its horizontal stabilizer at London Heathrow. Simple Flying has previously reported that Airbus Beluga was expected to " perform a rescue mission sometime next week to return a damaged A350 back to commercial service. " Airbus BelugaXL flies in special parts for the stricken A350.
Data from Flightradar24 shows that the BelugaXL was scheduled at 10:00 local time to fly from the southern French city of Toulouse (a major base for Airbus and where the A350-1000 was manufactured) to London Heathrow. Flightradar24 also shows the Airbus Beluga scheduled to return to Toulouse later in the afternoon or evening. Air Live reported in April that a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9's left wingtip collided with the A350-1000's horizontal stabilizer as it was being towed from the stand at Heathrow's Terminal 3.
The impact damaged the A350's starboard-sized horizontal stabilizer. Before the collision, the Virgin flight (registered G-VDIA) had just arrived from Washington while the British Airways A350 (registered G-XWBC) had just flown from Accra in the West African country of Ghana. The Virgin 787 only suffered minimal damage and was returned to service on June 21 while the A350 remains grounded and in need of replacement parts.
According to planespotters.net , the A350 is 4.8 years old and was delivered to British Airways in 2019.
The uniquely large freight transport has completed another impressive feat. Airbus BelugaXL The BelugaXL is a massive cargo transport aircraft designed for carrying large and heavy cargo that cannot fit into regular cargo aircraft fuselages (like wings). The Beluga is based on the Airbus A330-200F and was built to replace the aging Airbus BelugaST (Super Transporter).
The BelugaXL performed its maiden flight in July 2018 and came into service in January 2020. Six were produced by the end of 2023. An American counterpart is the Aero Spacelines Super Guppy - a somewhat similar-looking cargo aircraft built to carry outsized cargo components (five of which have been produced).
The Soviet/Ukrainian Antonov An-225 Mirya was a more conventionally shaped aircraft originally built to carry the Soviet Buran spacecraft. As the world's largest aircraft, it was also able to carry outsized loads. However, only one was ever built, and it was destroyed early in the Full-Scale Russian Invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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