A whale-shaped bird landing at airport is not something you see every day. One of the biggest cargo aircraft in the world, the Airbus Beluga, which has a nose shaped like a sea creature, arrived in Mumbai on Tuesday in the afternoon.
On Wednesday, the airport is likely to be filled with aviation enthusiasts who want to take a closer look at the marvel.
World's Largest Cargo Plane Airbus Beluga And Embraer E195-E2 Lands At Mumbai Airport | Exclusive 4
The largest jet in the Brazilian manufacturer’s E2 series, the Embraer E 192-E2, which also made its debut in Mumbai, was another noteworthy visitor to the Mumbai International Airport.
The Airbus A300-600ST (Super Transporter), often known as the Airbus Beluga, arrived at Mumbai Airport for the first time today. Large cargo is transported via the aircraft.
And the fortunate few travellers who saw this enormous aircraft were astounded by the magnificent sight, according to a spokesman for Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport Limited (CSMIA).
At roughly 2.50 pm, the Beluga arrived in the city. It is one of Mumbai’s busiest arrivals in recent memory. This aeroplane, marketed as the Airbus Beluga Transport Commercial Service, offers clients significant freight transport options for a range of industries, including the space, energy, military, aviation, maritime, and humanitarian sectors.
Since the middle of the 1990s, the Belugas have been used for Airbus’ own industrial airlift requirements.
The aircraft has a 56.15-meter length, a 17.25-meter height, and a 44.24-meter wing span.
The semi-automated main deck cargo loading system of the Beluga ST guarantees simple and effective handling of goods.
Few, though, could be as fortunate as aviation enthusiast and jet spotting expert Janam Parikh, a former Jet Airways worker who now works for Adani Airports and who even got to touch the Beluga’s spout.
Aviation enthusiast Debashish Chakraverty remarked, “I’m going to travel there on Wednesday to witness the big plane. The fact that it arrived on Mumbai soil makes me happy.
Is today a lucky day for me? Oh, yeah. I’m really glad to meet you here at @CSMIA Official, @Airbus #Beluga. A catch of 2022, for sure,” he tweeted.
Parikh was ecstatic to see the Embraer plane as well. “I requested an E2, and I received an E2. He posted images of both planes on the tarmac and wrote, “I am even delighted with this one while I actually got to view the #Experimental one, up and close.
As part of its Asia tour, an Embraer E 192-E2 painted in Techlion livery touched down in Mumbai. At the 14th Airshow China, it made appearances in Zhuhai, Guangzhou, and Seoul, South Korea. It then travelled to Hanoi, Vietnam, and Tokyo’s Haneda airport, where Embraer had hosted an industry conference, before making its way to Mumbai on Sunday.
The E192-E2 is regarded as the most fuel-efficient single-aisle aircraft in the E-jets family due to its reduced noise levels of 65 percent and 16% lower fuel consumption.
Even though Boeing and Airbus dominate the airline fleet in India, Embraer is looking for a means to break through there thanks to the high demand for its private planes among the country’s super-rich.
The only regional airline with five Embraer ERJ-145 aircraft and Airbus helicopters in its fleet is Sanjay Ghodawat’s Star Air.
World's Largest Cargo Plane Airbus Beluga And Embraer E195-E2 Lands At Mumbai Airport | Exclusive 5
The ERJ-145 can accommodate 50 passengers, and the airline uses them on flights that link Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Chennai with smaller cities in Maharashtra, Gujarat, MP, and Andhra.
Embraer announced earlier this month that it is in talks with possible partners in India about developing its next-generation turboprop aircraft, including plans for production.
The statement came soon after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared India could become a centre for aircraft production on October 30 when he opened the Tata-Airbus C-295 aircraft manufacturing facility in Vadodara.
The market for low cost carriers connecting small cities is expanding thanks to the regional connectivity programme UDAN, and turbo-props may be the ideal aircrafts for this sector.
An Aircraft Maintenance Engineer, Mahesh always had a knack for all things in aviation. He Join Aviation A2Z as a writer nearly 2 years ago and has been successfully writing Quality articles and blogs for the entity.