Beluga as a commercial freighter?
Thread Starter
Evertonian
Joined: May 2000
Aviation Qualifications: Non-Aircrew
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From: #3117# Ppruner of the Year Nominee 2005
Beluga as a commercial freighter?
I've had a quick search & couldn't see this as being discussed thoroughly before, if it has, I apologise for going over old ground Ratty!
The Beluga has recently come through Oz for the AVV airshow & I was wondering how feasible it would be to market it as a short range type of freighter. I imagine it's niche would be just like the spoke & hub of the pax carriers, supporting the "big dogs".
A market, like Oz, would be perfect for this type of freighter. It would allow smaller ports to feed the major gateways with pre-built units etc.
Any thoughts chaps, or would you like some of what I'm smoking!!
The Beluga has recently come through Oz for the AVV airshow & I was wondering how feasible it would be to market it as a short range type of freighter. I imagine it's niche would be just like the spoke & hub of the pax carriers, supporting the "big dogs".
A market, like Oz, would be perfect for this type of freighter. It would allow smaller ports to feed the major gateways with pre-built units etc.
Any thoughts chaps, or would you like some of what I'm smoking!!
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 4,777
Likes: 9
From: Blighty
Nice idea, but the Beluga is a specialist freighter built to carry airbus sections between the various airbus factories. Aircraft sections tend to be low density, i.e, voluminous but light. It's based on an A300 which in the freighter guise only had a load of 35 tonnes (I think) which doesn't make it particularly useful compared with a 747 freighter at about 110 tonnes.
The Beluga is available for freight charters from Airbus I believe.
The Beluga is available for freight charters from Airbus I believe.
Top Dog
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 2,098
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From: Close to FACT
Nurries Buster,
The Beluga is available for charter. Only thing is that range is miserable; if I remember the Airbus briefing, needs two tech stops to go trans Atlantic at max payload (40T I think). Blockhour price was staggering.
(BTW Buster, tell whoever went to AVV, sorry about pdu 4R. Died on me in MUC Friday during loading).
The Beluga is available for charter. Only thing is that range is miserable; if I remember the Airbus briefing, needs two tech stops to go trans Atlantic at max payload (40T I think). Blockhour price was staggering.
(BTW Buster, tell whoever went to AVV, sorry about pdu 4R. Died on me in MUC Friday during loading).
Thread Starter
Evertonian
Joined: May 2000
Aviation Qualifications: Non-Aircrew
Posts: 13,469
Likes: 278
From: #3117# Ppruner of the Year Nominee 2005
Don't worry....
...It wasn't me!!
They had fun though, manually pushed out B1 & opened the nose for A1 & A2. Pity BKK didn't spray the acft though, meant they all stood around in the rain waiting!!!
They had fun though, manually pushed out B1 & opened the nose for A1 & A2. Pity BKK didn't spray the acft though, meant they all stood around in the rain waiting!!!
Joined: Nov 2002
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From: 39N 77W
Beluga Optimised for Shipping Air
The Beluga is optimised for shipping a lot of air. By that I mean large, but very low density, items such as aircraft sections (or whole aircraft) - which are just a bit of structure surrounding a _LOT_ of air. A Beluga would be fine for shipping feathers, but doesn't seem to make sense for average- or high-density items.
