With the departure of the Boeing 747 and Airbus A380, the Beluga XL is likely to become the largest commercial aircraft in production in the world. With its large hump and vast interior space, it is perfectly suited for carrying aircraft components, like a pair of Airbus A350 wings, across Europe.
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But looking at the aircraft you can't help but wonder if Airbus ever gave any thought to converting these planes back into passenger usage. After all, wouldn't it have all the advantages of the Airbus A380 but with twin-jet economics?
The Beluga XL is 63.1 m (207 ft 0 in) long, and has a wingspan of 60.3 m (197 ft 10 in), which is around the same of an Airbus A330-200 - what the Beluga XL is based on. The real advantage is the internal space - 2209 m3 (78010 ft3) of it.
The internal area of the plane is 46.56 meters long, 7.7 meters wide, not including the sublevel cargo deck for freight, and 7.9 meters high.
The a380 has a fuselage dimension of 8.4m high, its cabin is 6.54m meters wide and 50.68 Metres long.
So, lets install some seats - time to do some maths. Looking at the cross-section of the plane, its clear that we can fit in two decks - if not three. These two aisles would be 40 inches combined width, or 1 meter, leaving us 670 cm, or 264 inches to play with. If each seat it a nice 18 inches wide, or 46 cm, that means we can fill in 14 and a half seats across...This would have to be in a 4 - 3 - 3 - 4 configuration. We might have to take out a seat in the middle to make a third asile, so we will say 14 seats.
If the seats have 31 inches of legroom, or 70cm, then we could fit in 55 or so rows, leaving room for door spaces.
This would mean on one deck, 14 in 55 rows would be 770 passengers in total if all economy in the tightest configuration. If we include the second level, its likely we could get this plane to 1200 passengers if all economy, or close to.
Naturally we want to include some premium space for our more full cabin of 22 inch business class seats instead on the lower deck. This deck, being based on the A330-200 fuselage, would be the smaller 525.78 cm or 17 feet and 3 inches. This space would have the same twin aisles, and fit 6 business class seats in a 1-2-1 open suite configuration. At 78 inches of legroom, or 200 cm per seat, we could fit 20 or so rows. - because I love bars on planes. This is 4 passengers per row or 80 passengers in total.
This gives us a total capacity of around 880 passengers. The A380 by comparison is rated for 538 on the main deck and 330 on the upper.
The width of the plane would also lead to some pretty crazy ideas, such as including suites, private cabins, and even restaurant and dining areas. After all, remember that cargo subdeck I mentioned? its a cozy 16 meters long and shares the same width as upstairs. If not filled with the passengers' suitcases, this deck could be a boarding lounge.
Because the aircraft has a giant door on the front, this could be used as a way to very quickly board and disembark passengers - after all, the front of the plane comes off and everyone could just walk off.
This aircraft could be a combi plane. Because of the way its designed, who is to say that a passenger section couldn't be slotted in and out when needed!
This plane has a cruise speed of only 37 km/h (458 mph, 398 km) , Mach 0.69. Meaning it takes a bit longer to get where you need to go. It also only flies at a lower 11,000 m (35,000 ft), which would make it susceptible to clouds and other weather events.
It only has a range of 2,300 nautical miles, or 4,300 kilometers. London to New York is 5571.55 km or 3008.39 nautical miles - putting this plane out of practical use for arguably one of the most popular routes in the world.
If we said 600 passengers, at 60kg each, the average weight of a person, would be only 36,000 kg. Say 9,000kg of luggage, that takes us to 45,000 kg, a nice 5,500 kg under the max limit of 50,500 kg (111,333 lb). This means a bigger fuel tank and 5,000 liters of fuel, which might be enough to get it to where it needs to go - especially if it had more modern engines like those used on the A350.
Speaking of engines, this plane would end up burning far less fuel than the Boeing 747 or Airbus A380, and give the double-decker design the advantage of twin-jet economics. The plane as well would only have the footprint of an A330, and would be able to land at smaller airports and require no change to airport gates.
Airbus fully intends to sell or rent off the Bulga aircraft at the end of their service life at Airbus - likely within the next 20 years. This means that this aircraft could see a second life for all sorts of operations, including passengers. Airbus ask for ETOPS certification to fly the aircraft across oceans - meaning they are full considering either using these planes for overseas charters.